lLIBRAIlYOrCONGRESS.# 

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t UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




ANTS AT WORK. 



CECIL- S BOOKS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 




E C I L'S 





ooK OF ^ Insects 



+ 7 ^ 



7 



S E L I M H '. P E A B O D Y , M . A 



V 



CHICAGO : 

CLARKE AND COMPANY. 
1869. 



Entered according to Act of Conirres^, in the year IS!'.), 
JJv CLAKKl': AM) COMPANY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Northern District of Illinois. 






1 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



About Ants. 

Akts at Work Prontlapiece, 

Ants: Watching an Ant-hill — The Ant-town — Their cocoon-sacks — 
How colonies are founded — What they eat — Their dairy-farms 
— Their industry — Brown Ants — Carpenters — Kidnapping 
Ants — The Sauba Ant — Foraging Ants — The Tocandeiroa — 
A fiery ordeal — The Blind Ant — The Green Ant— The Driver 
Ant — Bridges of Ants — The Agricultural Aut . • • • 11 



About Bees. 

Hive Bees Making and Laying Wax. 

Hive Bees : The Bee in the flower — At the hive — Making wax — Lay* 
ing out cells — Feeding the young — The grub becomes a pupa, 
then a bee — The care of young queens — Swarming — How a 
new queen is obtained — The massacre of the drones — Keeping 
the hive cool — How the honey ifl obtained — Bees came to 
America from Europe. 

Carpenter and Mason Bees, and their Cells. 
BoLiTART Bees: Humble Bees — The mother- bee founds a colony — 
The burrow — How fitted and furnished — Its population — 
Huber's experiment — The Lapidary Bee — The Carder Bee — 
Cuckoo Bees — The Carpenter Bee — The Upholsterer Bee — 
The Mason Bee ..•..41 



VI. CONTENTS, 



About Spiders. 

The Great Mtoalb, Mygale Caneeridea. 

Spiders: A family of workers — Goldsmith's Spider — The structure 
of a Spider — How it spins — The Garden Spider's Web — 
Watching for prey — The Nephila Phimipes — The House Spi- 
der—The Trap-door Spider — The Mygale — The Tarantula — 
The Water Spider — How it takes air underwater — The Raft 
Spider — Gossamer — Care for eggs and young — Feeding Spi- 
ders— Bruce's Spider 78 

About Dragon-Flies. 

WiNOBD Ant-Lioh, MyrmeUo Ubelluloide9. 

DrAOOK-Flies : Born in the water — The change to a winged insect — 
How the larva moves in the water — Multiple eyes — Scorpion 
flies — Lace- wings — The Ant-lion — Its pit-fall — The May-fly. 

Section of Tekmites' Nest. 
Termites: Akin to Dragon-Flies — Their buildings — Underground 
roads — Founding a colony — Repairing breaches — The destruc- 
tion they cause — Imported into France 99 

About Wasps. 

A Wasp's Nest, Outside and Inside. 

Wasps : Watching a Wasp's nest — How it is filled with comb — Wasps* 
fondness for flies — An immense nest— The Chartergus Wasp — 
The Myrnpetra — The Mud-wasp— A Wasp in trouble — Don 
and the Mad-wasps — The Yellow Wasp 125 

About Locusts. 



y 



The Migratory Loccst ; Grasshopper Laying Eggs. 

LocnSTS: Terribly destructive — Described by the Prophet Joel — 

Locusts used for food — The young Locust — The Katy-did. 
The Hunter Fay 14S 



CONTENTS. Vll 



About Mosquitoes. 

Transformations of the Mosquito. 

Mosquitoes: The Mosquito a nuisance — How to protect one's self 
from it — Torture by Mosquitoes — Suiudge-fires — Laying eggs 
— The larva — The pupa — The last change — How the Mosquito 
bores. 

Brtamt's Mosquito 151 

About Beetles. 

The Scarabeus Beetle. 

BsBTLES: Mailed warriors — Some injurious, others beneficent — The 
Burying Beetle — The Dor Beetle — The Goliath — The May- 
bug — The Rose-chafer — Stag Beetles — Borers — Curculios — 
The Pine-we€vil — The Wheat-weevil — The Pea-bug — The Yel- 
low striped bug — Lady-birds — Tiger Beetles — Water Beetles 
Cu-cuyos — Cantharides 171 



About Butterflies. 

The Amphrisius Butterfly, Caterpillar, and Chrysalis. 

Butterflies: Caterpillars not really ugly — They do injury — The 
worm of the carrot-leaf — Changes his skin — His structure — 
How he walks — Eats — Spins — How the chrysalis climbs — 
Cocoons, spun — Woven of hair — Made in the ground — Re- 
paired when broken — The Butterfly appears — Its glowing 
colors — Structure — Feeding — Laying eggs — General Classifi- 
cation of Lepldopte.ra. 

How to Catch and Preserve Butterflies : The net — The setting box 
— Pins — Permanent cases — How to catch, kill, and set up spe- 
cimens — Care of Cocoons — The Worm case . . . .197 



And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean 
To be some happy creature's palace. 

LovjelL 



O HAPPY living things! no tongue 
Their beauty might declare : 
A spring of love gushed from my heart, 
And I blessed them unaware. 

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 



About Ants. 



Branch — Articulata — Consisting of rings, or joints. 

Class — Insects — Having bodies divided into two or three distinct parts. 

Orobr — Hymenoptera — Having membranous wings. 

Family — Formicaria — Ant family. 




*0 you ever find yourself, some 
dreamy summer day, with no- 
thing to do? The hot, dense 
rays of the July sun scorch the 
dry grass, glow in the burning 
sand, and almost hiss in the 
water of the idle stream. The 
birds hide in the dense thickets, 
the cattle pant in the shade, and the very dog 
wishes he could take his jacket off. The straw- 
berry leaves crisp in the heat, and rest upon 



12 ABOUT ANTS. 

the ground ; the corn curls its green blades, 
and turns blue; the portulaccas shut their cups; 
the pansies hang their heads ; even the giant 
sunflower droops his broad leaves, and the cab- 
bages perspire. It is too warm to work, or to 
read, or to play. The boy has exhausted all 
his own plans for fun, and in despair asks his 
mother, '' What shall I do ?" 

I'll tell you what to do. Find an ant-hill 
in some shady place, where the sun will not 
burn your back, lie down upon your face, and 
watch it. You have passed such a thousand 
times, without knowing what curious things 
could be seen there. The little fellows worked 
all the morning, and brought up out of that 
hole in the middle, all the grains of sand that 
you see piled around in a tiny, circular fortress. 
One by one they brought them out and laid 
them in their places. !N'ow they are thoroughly 
warmed by the sun, and they are carrying 
them back again, into the rooms which they 
have excavated below. If there is a flat stone 
near, turn it over, and you will quite likely 



THEIR CITIES. X3 

find a much busier crowd. A large chamber, 
with many winding passages running hither 
and thither, and connecting with each other, 
and with other passages underneath, has been 
made, like the public square and the thronged 
streets of an old fashioned city. It is not like 
the exact, right-angled, stiff, modern town, but 
the lanes turn in and out, and yet go on with 
persevering directness towards some particular 
spot which was not down in the original plan, 
although a point of much consequence. Scat- 
tered all alono; the thorouo^hfares of this stone- 
canopied town, and quite plenty in the grand 
square, are many long, round, white some- 
things, a little like grains of wheat. People 
have mistaken these things for the food of the 
ants, and so have written, 

"The little ant, for one "poor grain. 
Doth tug, and toil, and strive." 

But the ants la^^ up no food. They need none; 
for as soon as the hard frosts of autumn chill 
them, they lie down to sleep till the spring 



14 ABOUT ANTS, 

wakes them again. If they did lay up food, it 
would not be grain, for the ant can no more 
eat grain than a man can eat gold, and the ant 
is not so big a fool as to hoard what he can not 
use. 

Others have thought that these little white 
sacks are the eggs of the ants ; but eggs do 
not grow, and surely ants can not lay eggs that 
are larger than themselves. Whatever they 
are, the ants evidently think them very valua- 
ble. Away they go, over the clumps of earth, 
and through the tiny streets, as if to see what 
has happened, and estimate the damage. They 
don't quite understand it, but they are agreed 
that one thing is to be done forthwith — these 
precious little sacks must be carried in, out of 
danger. So each grasps the nearest, and drags 
it away to the hole in the centre, the gateway 
of the inner town, where you see the throng 
coming out. The sack is larger than the ant, 
but he seizes it resolutely, and raises it over 
his head. Away he creeps, but it strikes 
that block of sand at the street corner, and 



THEIR COCOON-SACKS. IS 

he can not lift it over. He lays it down 
and pulls the end of it round; that obsta- 
cle is past, but another is beyond. A second 
worker comes, and the two, by pulling at one 
end and lifting at the other, have brought it to 
the gate. Surely they can not get it through 
that narrow and crooked passage. One has 
gone below, and the sack shuts him from sight. 
The other tugs and pulls. It will not move. 
Yes, it does ; see that end rise in the air ; now 
it sinks in the hole ; now it is out of sight. 
But here comes another, and another. All are 
hurrying to the numerous stairways to the city 
below, and in a short time all will have van- 
ished. 

These sacks contain the young ants. The 
eggs were laid by the queen, and hatched 
by the warmth of the hot grains of sand. 
The grubs were fed, and grew, and finally 
shut themselves up in the sacks, as the cat- 
erpillar spins a cocoon, or the beetle-grub 
sheds his coat and becomes a chrysalis. Then 
the ants take great care of these sacks. They 



i6 



ABOUT ANTS. 



are very precious to them because they contain' 
their childreu. If the air is damp and cold, or 
the rain falls, they carry them down into the 
lower rooms, and keep them warm. If the sun 
is warm and bright, they are brought where 
the warmth may be felt, without making them 
too dry. If they happen to be exposed, we 
have seen how they are hurried to a place of 
safety. If you should carefully dig down into 
the earth, you would find the underground city 
very extensive, the long, winding galleries lying 
tier after tier beneath each other, and leading 
to large apartments, where the ants and their 
children find room. 

Three kinds of ants come out of these cocoon- 
sacks. There are males, w^hich have four 
wings ; females, which are much larger, and 
have tw^o wings; and a third kind, called work- 
ers, or nurse-ants, which have no wings. After 
midsummer the several khids may often be 
seen very busy about an ant hill, the w^inged 
ants trying to get away, and the workers bring- 
ing them back as often as they can find them. 



HO W THE r FO UND C OL ON IBS. I ^ 

The males seem to be worthless fellows, and 
soon disappear. They have no sting to protect 
themselves with, and no jaws to help them get 
a living. 

Some of the females are caught by the work- 
ers, and taken back to the nest. Others wan- 
der away with a few followers and found new 
colonies, while others stray away by themselves, 
going out into the wide world alone. When 
one alights, she examines the new land which 
she has discovered, to see if it is fit for a home. 
If she is satisfied, she turns back her head, bites 
ofiTher wings at the shoulders, and settles down 
for life. Her wings carried her from her moth- 
er's house to her new home, and henceforth her 
journeying is ended. Then she begins to hol- 
low out a chamber for herself. Even if she has 
workers with her, she continues to toil until she 
has laid eggs ; then she is recognized and hon- 
ored as a queen. If alone, she has to continue 
her toil until the young from her own eggs 
make a colony about her. The grubs, when 
hatched, are fed by the nurse-ants, or by the 



i8 



ABOUT ANTS. 



mother, with food prepared in the stomach, 
and the solitary insect has much to do, to find 
food for herself and her hungry family. 

Ants eat various substances, particularly such 
as are juicy, or contain sugar. They kill and 
eat weaker insects, and they are very fond of 
ripe, sweet fruit. One may be sure they will 
always choose the best. If the pioneers can 
not eat the whole of some plunder which they 
have found, they carry away what they can, and 
then bring back an army to carry off the rest. 
They are very fond of a substance called honey- 
dew. Ants are often seen running up and 
down the trunks of trees, even when there is 
no fruit on the tree to tempt them. As the 
trees which they visit are often sickly, they are 
supposed to do some injury. They are not at 
all to blame, but are only going to their farms 
to look after their cattle. The leaves and ten- 
der twigs of these trees will be found to be 
covered with small, pale-green insects, called 
Aphides, or Plant-lice. They are often very 
closely packed upon the leaf or stem, and they 



THEIR INDUSTRr. 1 9 

do harm by sucking up the juices of the grow- 
ing plant. The ant comes up the tree to his 
dairy farm, and strokes one of the green lice 
with his feeler; the louse gives out a single 
drop of clear liquid, which the ant drinks. 
Then he goes to the next, and so on, milking 
his cows, or gathering honey-dew. When he 
has enough, he goes back to his work, digging, 
building, or feeding the young ants. 

The working ant does a great deal of work 
in a day. M. Huber, a French naturalist, gives 
an account of a single day's work of one ant. 
The insect first dug in the earth a groove or 
road, about a quarter of an inch deep and four 
inches long. The dirt which he took out, he 
kneaded into pellets, and placed on each side 
of his road, to make a wall. When this road 
was finished, very smooth and straight, he 
found that another was wanted, and he made 
that in the same manner, and about the same 
size. A man, to have done as much in propor- 
tion to his size, must have dug two ditches, 
each four and a half feet deep, and seventy-two 



20 ABOUT ANTS. 

feet long; he must have made the clay into 
bricks, and laid them up in walls on each side 
of the ditches, two to three feet high and fifteen 
inches thick. He must have gone over it all 
and made it straight and smooth ; and must 
have made it alone, in ground full of logs and 
stones. 

The Brown Ants, F. brunnea, are both miners 
and builders. They work either at night or in 
damp weather, because the sunshine dries their 
mortar too fast. They build a house of many 
stories, sometimes twenty or thirty. Each story 
is about a fifth of an inch high, supported by 
many partitions and pillars. In wet weather 
they take the family into the upper rooms ; in 
dry weather they occupy the middle or the lower 
floors. While building, they work the damp 
clay in their jaws until the pellets are compact, 
and will adhere firmly ; then they press them 
tightly against the tops of the partitions which 
they have made. As fast as one row of bricks 
has dried, another row is added ; thus they will 
lay a perfectly smooth and strong ceiling two 



CARPENTERS. 21 

inches in diameter. When these walls are fin- 
ished, the rain and sun seem only to make 
them harder. If a stick or straw is in their 
way, they at once make a beam or a post of it. 
If a post, they cover it with mortar until it is 
thick and strong enough for their work. If a 
beam, they build their ceiling against and 
around it. If a room is too large, they build 
partitions, and divide it into smaller rooms of 
suitable size. 

Other Ants are carpenters. They often re- 
move so much of a log of wood as to leave it a 
mere honey-comb, pierced through and through 
in every direction with their passages. The 
walls between are often as thin as paper, and 
yet are never broken through except where one 
passage crosses another. They can not know 
how to cut so near another passage by sight, 
for all is done in the dark ; they can not plan 
or measure, as a reasoning being would do; 
and yet they do their work with greater deli- 
cacy and accuracy than the man who reasons 
and measures. For some unexplained cause, 



22 ABOUT ANTS, 

the wood through which they cut is all colored 
black, as if the fire had passed through it. 

When these black carpenters get into a 
dwelling, they cause a deal of trouble. They 
make themselves at home in the very wood- 
work of the house. They gnaw a way into any 
wooden box which they wish to explore, and 
will find the least crevice into the sugar-box or 
cake-jar. The prudent housewife puts her pot 
of sweetmeats in a pan of water, but if the anta 
know what the jar contains, they will find a 
way to it, even if they crawl upon the shelf 
above, and drop down upon it. The family 
may be almost exterminated, and yet, if two or 
three be left, with all the resources of the nest 
at their command, in a little time the plagues 
are as thick as ever. Moreover, they bite. 

Some tribes of Ants are very warlike, and 
they make war to ca})ture the workers of other 
tribes, and obtain slaves for their own commu- 
nities. It is said that the kidnappers are always 
pale or red Ants, and that the captured slaves 
are black. When the red Ants are about to 



THEIR WARFARE, 23 

make a foray, they send scouts to explore the 
ground, who afterwards return and report their 
success. They then march forth in regular 
armies. The assailed town pours out its inhab- 
itants, and the fight begins. Head to head, 
foot to foot, jaw to jaw, the sable warriors de- 
fend their "homes and their children, but in 
vain. The victory is always with the invaders. 
They do not drive out their conquered foes, 
but they break into their homes and carry 
away the cocoons of the workers. The red 
ants return in perfect order to their own city, 
bearing with them their living burdens. They 
treat the plundered young with the same care 
they give their own, and the ants produced 
from the stolen cocoons seem to work with 
abundant energy and good will. The inhabit- 
ants of the besieged city, knowing what result 
will follow the fight, often carry away many of 
their young. They take them to the tops of 
the grass stems, and hide them amid the foliage 
of other plants. When the raid is over, they 
bring them back to the nest again. Several 



24 ABOUT ANTS. 

kinds of ants practice this kind of warfare, and 
the results are too well attested by careful 
observers to admit of doubt. 

Although there are many kinds, and count- 
less numbers of Ants in the cooler countries of 
the temperate zone, they are far surpassed in 
number, in size, and in venomous power, by 
those found in the hot lands of the torrid zone. 
Here all kinds of reptile and of insect life seem 
to be extravagantly developed, and the ants are 
often so numerous and so powerful as to drive 
away every other living thing. 

The Sailba or Coushie Ant, (Ecodoma cepha- 
loies, lives in South America. It is often called 
the Parasol Ant. Large columns may be seen 
marching along, each carrying in its jaws, and 
over its head, a round piece of leaf, about the 
size of a dime. Many suppose that this is actu- 
ally carried to keep off the heat of the sun; 
but the fact is that they use the leaves to 
thatch the roofs of their houses, and to keep 
the loose earth from falling in. They choose 
the leaves of cultivated trees, as the orange and 



THE SAUBA ANTS, 25 

the coffee. When they attack a tree, they strip 
it of foliage so entirely, that it often dies. Then 
they march away with their plunder, and fling 
it on the ground, at the nest. Another party 
of workers take up the pieces, and put them 
upon the roof, covering them with dirt. These 
domed houses are wonderfully large, measuring 
sometimes two feet in height, and forty feet in 
diameter. Their underground cities are on 
even a larger scale. The smoke of burning 
sulphur blown into one opening has been found 
to come out at another, more than two hundred 
feet away. 

There are three kinds of these ants: the 
winged, the large headed — sometimes called 
soldiers, and the workers. The large headed 
are also of two sorts : one kind Jaas a smooth 
helmet, covered with horny substance, which 
one can almost see through, and the other 
wears a dark helmet, covered with hairs. The 
business of these large-heads is not very well 
understood. The smooth helmets seem to do 
nothing but walk about. They do not fight; 



26 



ABOUT ANTS. 



they do not work ; they do not appear to over- 
look those which do work. The hairy-helmets 
are not known to do any more. If the top of 
one of the mounds be taken off, a circular well 
will be found in the centre, into which a stick 
three or four feet long may be thrust, without 
touching bottom. Presently some of these 
hairy-headed fellows, each wearing one eye 
in the middle of its forehead, like a fabled 
Cyclops, will come slowly up the smooth sides 
of the well, to see what is wanted. But they 
are not very pugnacious, and may easily be 
caught by the fingers. 

The winged ants are the perfect males and 
females. They come out a little after midsum- 
mer, that is in February. The females have 
bodies about as large as hornets, and spread 
their wings nearly two inches. The males are 
much smaller. Although hosts pour out of the 
nests, few remain after a day, for the birds and 
insect eating animals have devoured most of 
them. Those which escape found new colo- 
nies in spite of all the dangers which threaten 



FORAGING ANTS. 2? 

to destro}^ them ; even the art of man can not 
conquer them. 

Among the South American Ants are several 
species which are classed together, and called- 
Foraging Ants. They belong to the genus 
Eclton. They have been confounded with the 
Saiiba Ants, just described, but their habits are 
quite different. The real Foraging Ant, E.dre- 
panephora, is very annoying, and very useful. 
These insects go out from their cities in im- 
mense armies, not very broad, but often a hun- 
dred yards long. Officers march beside the 
column, very busy keeping their own portion 
of the line in order. There is an officer to 
about twenty privates; their white heads nod- 
ding up and down make them quite conspicu- 
ous. The pittas, or ant thrushes, always accom- 
pany these armies, picking up the Ants for their 
own food; but still the band goes marching on. 
The people know that the Ants are on the war 
path, and make every preparation for their 
reception. 

In those countries, insects of every kind gel 



28 ABOUT ANTS. 

into the houses, and multiply to an extent 
which almost drives the inhabitants from their 
homes. By day they are a trouble, and by 
night a pest. They bite, and suck, and scratch, 
and sting. They crawl over the food; they 
hide in the bed ; they fly into the lamp, and 
then whirl on the table ; they creep into the 
ink; they emit horrible smells. There are 
centipedes which sting, and scorpions which 
sting. There are cockroaches of powerful size 
and smell, and of insatiable appetite. As for 
snakes and lizards, and other creeping things, 
they are too common to be noticed. It is of 
no use to fight. Your enemies are legions of 
numbers innumerable. But when the Forag- 
ing Ants come, the case is altered, for nothing 
can stand their attack. When the pittas come 
about, the people open every box and drawer in 
the house, so as to allow the ants to explore 
every crevice, and then they vacate the prem- 
ises. 

"Presently a few scouts, which form the van- 
guard of the grand army, approach, and seem 



RAIDS UPON VERMIN. 29 

to inspect the house, to see if it is worthy of a 
visit. The long cohinin then pours in and dis- 
perses over the dwelling. They enter every 
crevice, and speedily haul out any unfortunate 
creature which is hidden therein. Great cock- 
roaches are dragged unwillingly away, being 
pulled in front by four or five ants, and pushed 
from behind by as many more. The rats and 
mice speedily succumb to the onslaught of their 
myriad foes, the snakes and the lizards fare no 
better, and even the formidable weapons of the 
centipedes and scorpions are overcome. 

" In a wonderfully short time the Foraging 
Ants have done their work, the turmoil gradu- 
ally ceases, the scattered parties again form 
into line, and the army moves out of the house, 
carrying its spoils in triumph. When the in- 
habitants return, they find every intruder gone, 
and to their great comfort may move about 
without treading on some unfortunate creature, 
or put on their shoes without knocking them 
on the floor to shake out a scorpion or a centi- 
pede." 



30 ABOUT ANTS. 

But those who are accustomed to the country 
are careful to keep out of the way. If a man 
should happen to cross the column, the ants at 
once dash at him, climb up his legs, and bite 
with their powerful and poisonous jaws. His 
only safety is in running away until the main 
army is too far off to renew the attack, and 
then destroying those which he has brought with 
him. This is not easy, for the Ants have long, 
Looked jaws, and bite so fiercely that they may 
be pulled away piecemeal, leaving the jaws in 
the wound to be picked out separately. 

Another species, E, prcedator, marches in 
broad, solid mass. It is a little creature, like 
our common red ant, but much brighter col- 
ored, making the trunk of a tree upon which 
many climb look as if smeared with a blood-red 
liquid. 

This little red ant is exceedingly venomous : 
its bite brings a quenchless, burning sensa- 
tion, whence the Brazilians call it *' fire ant." 
The South American Indians require their 
young men to undergo the ordeal of the Tocan- 



A FIERY ORDEAL, 3I 

deiros, or fire-ants, before they can be known 
as warriors, or recognized as braves. A pair 
of mittens are made of the bark of the palm 
tree, long enough to cover the arms above the 
elbows, and are filled with the Tocandeiros. 
The candidate for warlike honor must put his 
hands into these bags of living fire, and wear 
them while he makes the round of the village, 
and dances a jig at every pause. During this 
march he must wear a smiling face, and chant 
a kind of song so loud as to be heard above all 
the noise his companions may make upon rude 
horns and drums. He must not, by word, 
action, or look, show any sign of the torture 
which he endures; if he should, he will be the 
ridicule of his tribe, and even the maidens will 
refuse to know him. When the round of the 
village is complete, he must pause before the 
chief with swifter dance, and louder chant, 
until he falls from exhaustion, and the burning 
gauntlets are removed. Then he has won his 
right to carry a spear with his tribe. 
A species, E. legionis, attacks the nests of 



$2 ABOUT ANTS. 

some of the large burrowing ants. They 
arrange themselves for this purpose into two 
bands ; one set dig into the ground and take 
out pellets of earth, while the others receive 
the pellets and carry them away. They will 
thus sink a hole ten or twelve inches, and 
always succeed in opening the nest. The ma- 
terials they pull to pieces and carry home, as 
well as the inmates. The community is in 
wonderful discipline. Each ant knows his 
place, and attends to his business. 

The species JE. erratica, is blind. The eyes 
of the other varieties are very small, but in the 
Blind Ant they are absolutely wanting, not 
showing even a trace. They have, however, 
some means of knowing light from darkness, 
for they are very uneasy when brought into the 
light. 

They are wonderful builders, constructing 
long galleries through which they travel. If a 
gallery be broken into, the soldiers are seen 
slowly coming out, and opening their large 
jaws as if they would bite something. If not 



THE DRIVER ANTS. 33 

disturbed, they retire into the gallery, and soon 
tlie workers come and repair the breach. 
These galleries are built upon the surface of 
the earth, and do not penetrate the soil. 

Some Ants make their nests in trees, hang- 
ing them from the boughs, like the wasps.. 
One of these carries its abdbmen in the air, 
hanging over its back, and has acquired the 
uncouth nsime C7'emaiogasier, or "hanging-belly." 
Another is called by travelers the Green Ant, 
(Ecophylla viresceiis. The name signifies a 
house and a leaf, and is given because it makes 
its hano^ins: nest of dried leaves. "When dis- 
turbed, the Ants come pattering down upon 
the man below like rain-drops, seeking for 
spots which they can wound, and having a 
special faculty for finding their way down the 
neck. 

A tribe of Ants somewhat similar to the 
Ecitons of South America, is found in Africa, 
and is called Bashi Kouay, or Driver Ant, 
Anomma curcens. It is the dread of all animals, 
from the leopard to the smallest insect. It 



34 ABOUT ANTS. 

marches through the forest in lines about two 
inches broad, and of incredible length. One 
writer asserts that he has seen a column of 
these insects continue passing a single point, 
at good speed, for twelve hours. Officers 
march along the line and maintain order. If 
the advance guard come to an open place, not 
shaded by trees, they build a covered way, or 
tunnel, of dirt moistened with their saliva. If 
there are sticks and leaves on the ground, they 
fill up only the spaces which are exposed, for 
the direct rays of the sun kill them very 
quickly. If a stream crosses their path, they 
make a bridge of themselves, over which the 
whole pass. First a single Ant swings himself 
from the branch of a tree which overhangs the 
water. Then another crawls over him, and 
hangs from his feet. Others follow until a 
living chain is formed which reaches to the 
water, and rests upon it. Then the wind 
or the current wafts the free end of the chain 
about until it touches the opposite shore, and 
the crossing is complete. If one chain bridge 



BRIDGES OF ANTS. 35 

18 insufficient, others are made alongside. It 
is asserted that the bridge is even made tubu- 
lar, and that the army marches through it. 

When the Ants get hungry, the long line 
stops marching by the flank, as soldiers would 
say, that is, following each other in line, and 
moves like an army in line of battle, devouring 
every thing in its way. The black men run 
for their lives. In a very short time a mouse, 
a dog, a leopard, or even a deer, is overrun, 
killed, eaten, and only the bones are left. 
When they enter a house, they clear it of every 
living thing. If a fowl is the victim, they dig 
out the feathers by the roots, and then pull the 
flesh to pieces, fastening their strong pincers 
into it, and never failing to bring away the 
piece. 

A white hunter killed an antelope, and 
brought it to a native village. In the night 
he felt himself terribly bitten, and roused his 
attendants. The whole village was attacked by 
a column of the Bashi Kouay, which was 
attracted by the smell of the meat. The 



3^ ABOUT ANTS. 

natives protected themselves by making circles 
of fire and standing inside. Before morning 
the insects had eaten every thing they could 
get, and had traveled on. 

During the abundant tropical rains the Drivers 
run together and form themselves into balls, vary- 
ing in size, but usually about as large as those 
used in the game of ball. These balls of ants 
float upon the water until the land appears 
again, and the insects can go about their busi- 
ness. The natives try to destroy them by mak- 
ing fires over and about their nests. This does 
not accomplish much, for the cunning ants 
escape before the heat becomes too great, and 
will be found hanging in festoons upon the 
neighboring trees, and crossing from one to 
another by their chain bridges. 

These ants are black, with a tinge of red. 
They have enormous heads, equaling about 
one third of their entire length. The jaws are 
sharply curved, and cross each other when 
closed, so that if the ant has fixed itself, its 
hold can not be loosened unless the jaws are 



AGRICULTURAL ANTS. 37 

opened. It has no appearance of external 
eyes. 

Dr. Lincecum has observed an Ant in Texas, 
which has been called the Agricultural Ant, 
Atta malefaciens. When this species has fixed 
its home in good 'dry ground, it bores a cen- 
tral hole, about which it raises the surface per- 
haps six inches, making a low mound, which 
gently slopes to the outer edge. If the spot be 
wet, the mound is raised higher, and is even 
fifteen or twenty inches high. The space about 
the mound is carefully cleaned and smoothed 
like a pavement. !N"othing is allowed to grow 
in ^is circle, two or three feet from the centre, 
except a single species of grass. This grass 
the ants tend with the greatest care, cutting 
away the weeds within and about it. It thrives 
under their culture, and bears a crop of seed 
which resembles, under the microscope, minia- 
ture rice. When ripe, it is carefully harvested, 
and carried into the cells, where it is cleaned 
of the chafi*, and packed away. If the grain 
gets moist in damp weather, it is taken out and 



3^ ABOUT ANTS. 

dried on the first fair day, and the sound ker- 
nels are carried back again ; those which have 
sprouted are thrown away. Since men have 
made farms in that country, and the cattle have 
eaten down the ant-rice, thus spoiling their 
crop, the ants have either abandoned the pas- 
tures, or those communities have perished. 
They may be found in places where the cattle 
can not get at their crop of grain. 

Dr. Lincecum is confident, after twel^^e years' 
observation, that these ants plant the grain, 
take care of it, harvest it, and keep seed for 
another sowing. Each year the crop of ant- 
rice is found growing about their cities, and 
not a blade of any other green thing can bo 
found within twelve inches of this grain. 




HIVE BEES I\[AKING AND LAYING WAX. 

A, qiiccn Ilee; B, Male; C, Worker; D, Bees clustering- to make Wax; E, Bees 
I.ayiii.^ and Sculpturing Wax; F, Coinh with Empty, Full, and Queen Cells. 




CARPENTER AND MASON BEES, AND THEIR CELLS. 

B, Mason Bee; D, Cells of the Mason Bee; C, Carpenter Bee; A, F, Cells of C^ 
penter Bee; E, Comb of Humble Bees. 



About B 



EES. 



Artictjlata. — Insecta. 

Order — Hymenoptera — Membrane-winged. 

Family — Apidcz — Bee family. 




N the summer days, among the 
white clover heads, we find a 
bright, busy, buzzing Bee. He 
runs quickly over the round white 
bouquet, and thrusts his long 
tongue deep into every floweret. 
He tastes of each, and then, with 
cheery hum, visits another and 
another flower. In a little time he has gath- 
ered his sweet freight. He rises in the air, 
circles about for an instant, and then dashes 
away in the straightest of bee-lines to his home. 



42 ABOUT BEES. 

Another is searching the larkspur. A third is 
working at the snapdragon, the " frogs-mouth" 
of the children. !N^ow he kicks against the 
lower lip of the gay corolla. It opens, and in 
he goes, while the door shuts after him. Pres- 
ently it opens again, the Bee creeps out, goes to 
another, and vanishes in that. A fourth is 
making the round of the cucumber vines. 
Down he goes into the golden cup, round the 
sculptured pillar at the bottom, and out again, 
dusty with yellow pollen. He descends into a 
second cup, and as he rubs his way round that 
column, carved with a different device, he leaves 
a little of the golden dust to give vitality to the 
tiny cucumber at the base of the flower. If 
there were no Bees, the cucumbers and squashes 
would not grow. 

Hear the gentle hum among the pale, grace- 
ful clusters of locust blossoms, which burden 
the air with their oppressive sweetness. The 
buckwheat field resounds with the busy mur- 
mur. They visit the honeysuckles and the 
morning-glories, the clematis and the violets, 



GATHERING POLLEN. 43 

the lilies, the pea-blossoms, the scarlet-runners, 
and all the multitude of flowers that provide 
honey in their fragrant cups. 

Before that fellow which explored the cucum- 
ber blossoms went home, he rested on a twig 
and scraped himself all over with his feet. He 
cleaned off every particle of the yellow pollen 
which had gathered upon his velvet coat, and 
put his jacket in the nicest order. Little 
dandy, is he ? ITot at all. He is only neat ; 
and besides, the dust was partly what he came 
for. He kneaded it together, rolled it up care- 
fully in a ball, and tucked it away in his trou- 
sers pocket. ITot just that, either, but in a hol- 
low inside his thigh, made on purpose for that 
kind of load, and lined with bristly hairs to 
keep the little yellow packet from falling out. 
One may often be seen with his two thighs 
loaded down, while he is still gathering his 
supply of honey. 

Behind the house, under a little shed in the 
thicket of locusts and cinnamon roses, is the 
Bee's home. When his ancestors took care of 



44 ABOUT BEES. 

themselves, they made their comb and stored 
their honey in the hollow of some old tree ; 
they ate it themselves, unless the bears climbed 
the tree and took a share. Kow the careful 
farmer provides a snug, clean box for each 
swarra, and pays himself from their stores. 

You may stand near and watch them, if you 
will be quiet, and have not made yourself offen- 
sive to the Bees with some strong perfume. 
Their sense of smell is very acute, and many 
perfumes make them very cross. If you find 
that one begins to circle round your head with 
a sharp, rasping buzz, quite unlike the genial 
hum of those which are coming and going, and 
particularly if you find that two or three join 
in the song, and fly in the same curve, you had 
better go without ceremony. In an instant 
more you may expect them to dash in your 
face and sting you, and that a score of angry 
bees will follow their example. But you may 
usually approach Without fear, and will find a 
busy community — " busy as bees." 

A hive of Bees. contains a queen, a few hun- 



MAKING WAX. 45 

dred drones, and may have 15,000 or 20,000 
workers. The vsrorkers are those we have seen 
gathering honey and pollen. They are about 
half an inch long, nearly black, and are armed 
with a straight sting. The drones are about 
five-eighths of an inch long, and are thicker 
and clumsier than the workers. They have no 
sting. The queen is more than three-fourths 
of an inch long, slender and graceful; she has 
a curved sting. 

When a swarm of Bees are newly settled in 
a hive, their first business is to commence 
building. A part clean out the hive, while 
most go to the fields for honey and pollen. 
This latter they work into a substance called 
propolis, with which they glue the wax to the 
roof of the hive, and stop up all crevices which 
might admit cold, or insects. The wax is pro- 
duced by the Bees themselves. Those which 
return from the fields hang themselves from 
the top of the hive in bunches, festoons, ropes, 
and other fantastic forms, and remain quiet for 
about twenty-four hours. During this time the 



4^ ABOUT BEES. 

wax exudes between the rings of the bodies of 
the Bees, eight little scales coming out on 
each side. One leaves the festoon, goes to the 
top of the hive, and drives away the others 
from the spot where it would begin. It then 
takes from itself one of the scales of wax, chews 
it to make it pliable, and sticks it against 
the roof of the hive. When it has thus used 
all its wax, another takes the place, and lays 
more wax. While one works in one direction, 
another works in the opposite direction. Soon 
a thin partition begins to hang down, which 
will separate the ends of the two rows of cells 
that meet in the middle of the comb. When 
the two Bees working opposite to each other 
leave room between them, a third begins to cut 
out a hollow in 'one side of the partition, and 
presently two others begin to hollow on the 
opposite side. As fiist as the wax laj^ers extend 
the partition and make room, the sculpturers 
dig out the hollows on the sides. If the reader 
will press a slip of paper between the tips of 
two fingers of one hand and three fingers of 



\ 



LAYING OUT CELLS. 47 

the other, the paper will take the shape which 
the wax partition has when the sculjitnrers have 
followed the wax layers. The hollows made 
by the ends of the fingers will represent the 
bottoms of the cells on either side of the parti- 
tion. ITow lay a number of marbles of the 
same size upon a table. They will lie most 
closely if one be put down first, and six more 
placed around it; when these are placed, the 
others will readil}^ find their places. If the 
marbles were pressed into the surfiice of a sheet 
of wax, they would show the arrangement of 
several cells against one side of the central par- 
tition ; the spaces between the marbles would 
show where the partitions between cells are 
made. But these spaces are triangular, and if 
rilled up with wax, would waste wax and space, 
both which are very precious to the builders. 
So they cut out all that can be spared from the 
little three cornered places, and make the three 
partitions meet between three cells which join 
each other. Thus the six sided, or hexagonal 
shape of the cells is arranged. 



4^ ABOUT BEES. 

Now there is room for more Bees to work. 
Some lengtheM and widen the middle partition; 
some hollow out the cell bottoms; some laj 
wax for the sides of the cells, building directly 
out from the central wall; some smooth the 
interior of the cells. The same Bees do not lay 
the wax and smooth it too. When the work 
on one comb is fairly begun, the proper dis- 
tance is measured, and another is laid out on 
either side of the first; then two more still far- 
ther away, and so on until the ceiling is cov- 
ered. In a little time all the workers find 
plenty to do, and they work with such diligence 
that a moderate swarm will build four thousand 
cells in a day. 

When the cells are made, and even before 
they are finished, the queen comes to lay the 
egg3. She first puts her head in the cell, as if 
to see that it is properly made, then she turns 
about and places an ^gg at the farther end. 
She supplies thirty or forty cells on one side of 
the comb, and then passes to the opposite side, 
where she lays as many more. In this way the 



FEEDING THEIR YOUNG. 49 

grubs in the same body of comb are hatched at 
the same time, and the bees come out together. 
While the queen is laying, the workers treat 
her with the greatest attention. They caress 
her; they feed her from their own mouths; if 
danger threatens, they cover her with their 
bodies, piling up two or three inches thick. If 
they are pushed aside, and the queen is taken 
out, they seem greatly alarmed for her safety, 
but do not sting. Their whole anxiety is for 
the welfare of their beloved mistress. 

The Qgg hangs upon the upper angle of the 
cell for three daj-s. Then it bursts, and a lively 
little worm falls from it. At once the workers 
begin to look after the baby-bee. They feed it 
with liquid food, prepared in their own stomachs 
from farina, or pollen, with honey, and perhaps 
water. At first the liquid is quite insipid, but 
afterwards contains more honey. The grub 
eats voraciously, and the Bees bring all it can 
eat. They watch the brood with tender care. 
If a oomb containing it be placed in an empty 
hive, they will continue to take care of it with- 



so ABOUT BEES. 

out regard to other duties. By thus removing 
a body of comb containing one or two queen 
cells, a portion of a swarm may be transferred 
to a new hive, without the usual process of 
swarming. 

About five days after the ^%g is hatched the 
grub stops eating. It has nearly filled the cell, 
and has curled itself into a ring. Then the 
Bees seal it up in its cell with a cover of wax, 
and leave it, while it spins a silken shroud like 
a silkworm. This takes a day and a half; in 
three days more it has changed into a pupa, or 
chrysalis. First it straightens itself. Then the 
parts of the perfect Bee begin to form under 
the clear, white skin. The head, the eyes, the 
antennae, the wings, the feet, the rings of back 
and abdomen, may all be seen under the silken 
garment which seems to be laid in shining folds 
about its head, and gathered up about its feet. 
It looks like the living mummy of a Bee. The 
skin changes from w^hite and clear, to black 
and opaque; the parts become more distinct. 
On the twenty-first day from the laying of the 



CARE OF rOUNG QUEENS. 5^ 

Qgg^ the perfect insect throws off the black 
mummy wrapper, eats through the silken 
shroud and the wax coffin-lid, and comes forth. 
In half an hour she is free from the cell ; she 
dries her wings, and on the same day goes out 
into the world to sip honey and gather farina 
with her elder sisters. As soon as the young 
Bee has left the cell, the workers clean it out 
and put it in order for another Qgg, or for the 
storage of farina or honey. A large portion of 
the cells are used for this purpose, the food 
being intended for a supply at the season when 
flowers are not in bloom. 

The care taken of the egg and grub of the 
worker, though very great, can not compare 
with that given to the young which are to 
become queens. The workers act as if the fate 
of their nation depended upon the young crea- 
ture. They feed it with a richer, more pun- 
gent, and more acid jelly, and supply more of 
this royal food than can be eaten. After the 
cell is closed up, the grub spins a cocoon, but 
does not complete it. This omission is often 



5 2 ABOUT BEES. 

fatal to itself, but necessary to the quiet of the 
hive, for the queen tirst hatched often stings to 
death her rivals which have-not yet appeared. 
If the cocoon were complete, she might not be 
able to pierce it, or her sting might be entangled 
in the silk, which would destroy her own life. 
The queen ceases to be a chrysalis on the six- 
teenth day, but she is not allowed to leave the 
cell until a suitable time comes. If she were to 
come forth while the weather was such that a 
swarm could not fly, there would be two queens 
in the same hive, and that could not be per- 
mitted. A contest w^ould ensue, and the older 
and stronger would kill the younger. So the 
workers keep the young queen prisoner, but 
give her plenty to eat. 

Mean while the old queen becomes agitated 
and impatient. She has stopped laying eggs, 
and runs distractedly here and there over the 
comb. The workers share in her excitement, 
and gather about her. They fly wildly about 
the hive, but do not go away for food. Sud- 
denly the confused noise within ceases. In a 



SWARMING. 53 

second some workers come forth, and then the 
whole swurm, led by the mother queen, streams 
out and fills the air with a dark cloud. They 
hover for an instant about their old home, and 
then settle in a compact mass, like a ball, or 
bunch of grapes, upon a bush, or branch of a 
tree. If undisturbed they will soon fly again, 
and on swift wings vanish to some distant place, 
and probably be lost. While the swarm is 
quiet, they may be gathered in a bag or 
shaken into a hive. If the box be sweet and 
clean, and particularly if a little honey or wax 
has been rubbed in it, the Bees will almost 
always adopt it as their new home. 

When swarming they are said to be perfectly 
harmless. Jardine says: "They are so intent 
on the acquisition of a new abode, and so 
anxious about the safety of their mother and 
queen, that what on ordinary occasions would 
draw forth many a vengeful weapon, now passes 
utterly unheeded by them; and the cultivator 
may lift them in handfuls, like so much grain, 
without iu the least suffering for his boldness." 



54 ABOUT BEES. 

The young queens are left in the hive. After 
the departure of the old queen, the young one 
is allowed to come out of her cell. She at once 
goes to the other royal cells, and tries to kill 
the queens enclosed in them. Sometimes she 
succeeds, but the workers often crowd round 
her and hold her back. Extjited by this treat- 
ment she sometimes leaves the hive, taking a 
quantity of workers with her, and so forms a 
second swarm. This may be repeated from a 
large hive until three or four swarms have left. 
It would seem that the hive must become quite 
deserted from such drafts upon it, but this is 
not the case. The many Bees which are in the 
field when the swarm leaves return to their old 
home, and there is a multitude of young Bees 
in the comb, which shortly come forth and sup- 
ply the place of those w^hich left. 

It sometimes happens that a queen dies, and 
that too at a time when there are no queen 
grubs in the cells. Perhaps the queen has 
been taken away in order to see what the Bees 
would do. For about twelve hours every thing 



HOW A ^UEEN IS MADE. 55 

goes on as usual ; the workers do not seem to 
know their loss. Then the community is in 
great distress. All labor is suspended. They 
rush in crowds to the door as if to leave the 
hive. They gather in groups as if consulting 
together. Then they seek the comb where 
worker grubs are hatched, and open three cells 
into one, making a royal cell. The one grub 
which is left in the cell is fed with royal jelly, 
and treated in every way like a queen grub. 
The same thing is done in three or four places, 
to make the result secure. The change of 
food, and the increased size of the cell, work a 
change in the larva, or produce a more com- 
plete development, and in due time it comes 
forth a perfect queen. It is known to be a 
fact that the Bees can produce a new queen for 
themselves if they have a comb containing 
grubs not more than three days old. 

"When a second queen is placed in a hive 
which has already a recognized queen, the Bees 
gather round the new comer, and though they 
do no violence, in a few hours she is either 



S6 ABOUT BEES, 

starved or suffocated. If the two queens meet, 
a battle follows, and one is slain. Sometimes 
both perish. If the Bees have lost their queen, 
and have discovered their loss, a new queen 
will beat once recognized; before the proper 
time has passed, they treat the new queen as if 
the old one were yet with them. 

There is another Bee in the hive, of which 
little has been said. This is the drone, or male 
Bee. He is known by his larger size, his heavy 
flight, and his loud humming or droning sound. 
He takes no part in the work of the hive, nor 
does he go to the field to gather honey. His 
life is short. About the first of August, when 
the supply of honey begins to fail, the Bees 
seem to discover that the drones are of no 
use in their community, and that they can 
not afibrd to support them in idleness. The 
drones appear to know their danger, and clus- 
ter together in a corner. By and by the storm 
bursts. They are driven to the bottom of the 
hive, and out of doors. They have their wings 
bitten off. They drag two or three of their 



KEEPING THE HIVE COOL. 57 

enemies with them, but their strength will not 
save them. They are unarmed, and the work- 
ers wear sharp, poisoned stings. Those which 
escape the massacre fall a prey to birds or 
toads, or perish with cold and hunger. So 
bitter is ihe fury of the workers, that they tear 
open the cells which would produce drones, 
kill the young, and drag the lifeless bodies out 
of the hive. 

In all the work of the Bees, they take much 
pains to keep the hive uniformly warm. In 
cold weather the heat comes from the clusters 
of their bodies, and is considerably more than 
that of a well warmed house. In summer the 
hive is cooled by ventilation. A certain num- 
ber of workers may always be found in hot 
weather, vibrating their wings on the alighting 
board before the door of the hive. Inside, a 
still larger number is employed in the same 
way. They stand on the floor of the hive in 
lines, which separate to allow the workers to 
pass, and extend to the spaces between the 
combs. The beating of their wings forces a 



5 8 ABOUT BEES. 

constant current of fresh air into the hive. 
This is one cause of the hum which constantly 
resounds from a hive where the bees are at 
work. 

The honey may be taken from the hive, 
after the Bees have been removed by 
driving, or by suffocation, or it may be pro- 
cured in extra boxes. Formerly, a dense 
smoke was made, the hive placed over it, and 
the Bees destroyed. Or the hive may be 
turned up, and an empty one placed over it; 
a few smart taps on the lower hive will drive 
the Bees into the upper one. But the best 
plan is to have the hives made in two sto- 
ries, and to put suitable boxes into the upper 
storj^, communicating with the lower by holes 
through the ceilitig. The Bees fill the boxes 
with comb and honey, and then they may be 
removed and others put in the place. 

Bees are . kept in most countries, but the 
varieties differ considerably. Fifteen or twenty 
kinds of hive Bees are named. 



IHET CAME FROM EUROPE. 59 

In Africa, in Australia, and in America, 
they are often found wild. Bee hunters some- 
times derive considerable profit from the 
honey which they find in the hollow trunks 
of decayed trees. The hunter catches a Bee 
w^hich is about ready to go home, marks 
it with a little red paint, or sticks a bit of 
white down to it, and then watches its flight. 
He goes a little distance, and takes another, 
which he treats in the same way. By observ- 
ing several, he traces their lines to the tree, 
cuts it down, and obtains the honey. The wild 
Bees of America w^ere not originally natives. 
They were brought from Europe by the Eng- 
lish, and a swarm was carried over the Alle- 
ghany mountains in 1670 by a hurricane. The 
Indians call them " English Flies," and they 
say that the Indian and the buffalo flee before 
the Bees. Longfellow's Indian says of the 
Bees atid the white clover: 



6o ABOUT BEES. 

" Wheresoe'er they move, before them 
Swarms the stinging fly, the Ahmo, 
Swarms the Bee, the honey-maker; 
Wheresoe'er they tread, beneath them 
Springs a flower unknown among us, 
Springs the White Man's Foot in blossom." 

" Wise in their government, diligent and 
active in their employments, devoted to their 
young and to their queen, the Bees read a lec- 
ture to mankind that exemplifies their oriental 
name, Deburah, she thai speaketh.*^ 

The great family of Bees may be divided 
into two classes: those which live in commu- 
nities, and are called Social Bees, and those 
which livins: and workins: alone, are called Sol- 
itary Bees. The varieties of both classes are 
very numerous. More than two hundred and 
fifty species are known in Great Britain alone. 
The most noted of the social Bees are the com- 
mon Hive or Honey Bees, which have already 
been described. Another kind, familiar to all 
my readers, is the Humble Bee. In New Eng- 
land these Bees are known to boys as Bumble 



THE HUMBLE BEE. 6; 

Bees, or Bum-bees. In different parts of Old 
England they are called Foggies, Dumbledores, 
or Hummel-bees. Let us observe the annual 
circuit of a family of these Bees. 

In autumn the workers, the males, and all the 
old females, die. The young females find some 
sheltered place, in moss, dead leaves, or de- 
cayed wood of an old tree, where they may 
pass the winter. As the cold begins they be- 
come torpid, and so they remain until the 
bright sun and balmy air of spring wake them 
from their long sleep, and call them again 
among the flowers. At once they separate, 
and each, widow though she be, makes a home 
and founds a colony of her own. She finds a 
spot which suits her, and begins to dig a path 
in the ground. She picks out the grains of 
dirt with her strong jaws, passes them from 
one pair of legs to the next, under herself, and 
finally kicks them as far behind her as she can. 
When her passage is deep enough, a few inches 
or even some feet long, she ends it in a rounded 
cavern, which she lines with soft leaves. Some- 



62 ABOUT BEES. 

times she borrows the burrow of the field 
mouse, and quite often the field mouse comes 
and reclaims his own. Indeed, he is not care- 
ful to prove ownership, particularly if the 
chamber is well filled with honey and young 
brood. 

When the room is done, she builds brood- 
cells, taking the wax from herself, like the hive 
Bees. Her comb is not built in the mar- 
velously regular style of the hive Bees. 
She makes an egg-shaped cell of dirty 
wax, shaped like an earthen jar. This she 
places on its end, mouth upwards. Then she 
sets another beside it, and so gathers an irreg- 
ular mass of cells, some standing on the 
ground, some fastened to the walls of others. 
Some are filled with honey ; others receive 
eggs. If more than one tier of cells is found, 
the second and third will be placed above the 
first, and will be supported by waxen pillars. 
Besides these cells, others are built by them- 
selves about the room. These are filled with 
honey. The honey jars are never sealed up, 



THE COLONY INCREASES. ^Z 

for they are not filled for winter supply, but 
for daily use. 

In about fifteen days from the laying of eggs, 
the labors of the mother Bee, who has hitherto 
toiled alone, are rewarded by the appearance 
of workers. The young Bees make more 
comb, and fill the cells with honey and farina. 
They line the roof and walls of the nest with 
a coating of wax, to keep the earth in place, 
and to prevent the rain from soaking through. 
When the new cells are ready, the mother lays 
a new supply of eggs. She must protect the 
new laid eggs from the workers, who would 
eat them if not driven away. At times she 
gets angry at some who persist in their efforts 
to get the eggs, and chases them out of the 
nest ; but her wrath has defeated her prudence 
— the others take advantage of her absence, 
and steal her treasure. 

If she can guard the eggs for a few hours, 
the danger ceases. In four or five days they 
are hatched, and as soon as the grubs are 
grown, each spins a cocoon for himself. Sev- 



64 ABOUT BEES. 

era! eggs are placed in one cell. As the grubs 
grow, the cell becomes too small, and the pres- 
sure tears it open. The Bees patch up the 
rent. Presently it tears again, and again it is 
patched. Thus in a little time it becomes four 
or five times as large as it was at first. The 
patch work is not fitted neatly, like the wax 
work of the honey Bees, and produces the 
rough, clumsy cells found in these nests. The 
males are more useful than the drones in the Bee 
hive ; for though they do not gather food, they 
provide their share of wax. The other Bees 
do not kill them in autumn, but all perish 
together when the frosts come. 

These underground cities frequently contain 
quite a dense population. In one nest were 
counted 157 males, 56 females, and 180 work- 
ers, making a total census of 343. These num- 
bers seem small compared with the 20,000 to 
40,000 honey Bees in a hive, but if we remem- 
ber that the Humble Bees are much the largest, 
that the comb is large and very irregular, we 
find that so many require a large space ; and 



HUBERTS EXPERIMENT. 65 

we must not forget that they usually dig the 
place for themselves in the earth. 

Their honey is verj^ sweet, but is apt to give 
headache. The wax is not clear like ordinary 
beeswax, and will not melt as well. Each spe- 
cies makes a cell peculiar to itself, either in 
position or shape. 

Huber, while studying the habits of these 
Bees, placed several under a glass, with a piece 
of brood-comb. He took away all their wax 
and honej^ and gave them farina only. The 
comb did not rest fairly on the table, and when 
the bees climbed upon it, to make it warm 
enough to hatch the eggs, it rocked to and fro. 
This motion annoyed them very much, but 
they had no wax, and could not make props 
to keep the comb in place. A few of the Bees 
then rested the hooks of their hind feet upon 
the comb, and braced the middle and fore feet 
upon the table. In this way they propped the 
mass on every side, and kept it steady. They 
remained in this position until relieved by 
others, taking turns together for two or three 



66 ABOUT BEES. 

days. Then Huber gave them some wax, 
which they at ouce wrought into pillars, 
beneath the comb. But in a few days the 
wax became dry and gave way, and the Bees 
had to support the comb as before. 

One variety of Humble Bee does not dig a 
chamber in the ground, but fills up a crevice in 
a heap of stones, and for this has been called 
the Lapidary Bee, Bomhus lapidarius. 

Another is the Carder Bee, B. muscorum. 
This Bee makes a nest in some hollow upon 
the surface of the ground. It consists of a 
roof of moss, lined and bound together with 
moss. It has an entrance at the bottom, which 
is also covered with an arch, and the whole 
affair is shaped not unlike the huts which the 
Esquimaux build of snow. The manner in 
which the Carder Bees prepare the moss for 
their nest is quite curious. When several have 
found a supply w^hich suits them, they form a 
line from the nest to the moss. The foremost 
Bee takes a bunch of moss and combs it with 
her jaws and fore feet until the fibres all lie 



CUCKOO BEES. 67 

straight in a bundle beneath her. She then 
pushes it behind her, and at once proceeds to 
make another bundle. A second Bee takes 
the first bundle, combs it again, and kicks it 
back to a third, and so it is passed on from one 
to another, along the whole line to the last Bee, 
which puts it in its place on the roof of the 
house. This domed roof is made from four to 
six inches high. 

Certain kinds of Bees have been called False 
Humble Bees, or Cuckoo Bees, Apathus, 
They are like the true Humble Bees in size 
and shape, but they lack the brush-lined cavi- 
ties in the thighs for carrying pollen. These 
Bees do not build any house, do not make cells, 
or store honey, or care for their young. They 
are rovers, who take care of number one, and 
lay their eggs in the nests of other Bees. The 
larvse which hatch from these eggs are stronger 
than the rightful occupants of the cells, and 
eat up all the food. So the hard working 
Humble Bee has built her cell for an intruder, 
and continues to care for it as if it were the 



68 ABOUT BEES. 

true heir, which it has starved out. Such 
things do not happen among mankind alone. 

Among the solitary Bees several trades are 
represented. Their labors all tend to the same 
result — shelter and food for their young, while 
some work in wood like carpenters ; others, 
like masons, build houses of mortar; others 
excavate the ground as miners ; others find 
cavities, which they line with leaves, like up- 
holsterers. 

The Carpenter Bee begins her work in early 
spring. She chooses a bit of wood which 
suits her, usually the dead branch of a tree, 
or a weather beaten board, and in this she 
bores a hole about an inch and a half long 
and large enough to turn round in, which 
usually opens upon the under side of the 
branch or board, so that the rain may not come 
in. After boring directly in as far as she 
chooses, she turns and works several inches 
along the grain of the wood. All her chips 
she takes out and stores carefully in some place 



THE CARPENTER BEE. 69 

where thej will not be blown away by the 
wind. 

When she has bored as deep as she chooses, 
she begins to fill up the hole again. She 
puts a little heap of pollen in the bottom, 
and lays an ^gg. Then she goes to her store 
of chips and gets material for a floor above 
the Qgg. She fastens the chips in a ring 
about the wall, with glue from her mouth. 
Within this ring she makes a second, then a 
third, until the partition is complete. On this 
floor she places another pile of pollen, and an 
^gg\ and thus she continues until the hole is 
full. When the ^gg hatches, the grub finds a 
supply of food; in a few days it has grown to 
its full size, and changes to a chrysalis, placing 
its head downwards. In this way the perfect 
Bee, as it gnaws its way out of the wood, is 
prevented from interfering with its younger 
brothers and sisters which are not yet quite 
ready to meet the responsibilities of society. 
English writers describe the Carpenter Bees as 
living in South America and Africa ; they 



?<> ABOUT BEES. 

may be found in various parts of the United 
States. 

A variety of wood-boring Bee chooses the 
stem of the willow tree for its home. When 
its tunnel is finished, it fiies away to a rose 
bush, alights upon a leaf, and cuts out a round 
piece, about as large as a half dime. Many 
persons seeing the round spaces left, charge 
the mischief to the caterpillars. The Bee 
stands upon the piece which she cuts off, 
and as it falls she flies back to her nest with 
it in her jaws. She bends it into a cup shape, 
and stuffs it down to the very bottom of the 
hole. AVhen the cell is suitably lined, she puts 
in some pollen and an Qgg^ and covers it with 
another bit of leaf, which is the floor of a sec- 
ond cell. When the leaves are dry and stiff, 
they are so compact that the whole may be 
taken out together, and then separated into 
sections, like a row of thimbles thrust into each 
other. One variety of the Upholsterer Bee 
uses the scarlet leaves of the poppy for the 
silken lining of its cradle. 



THE MASON BEE. 7 1 

When a boy, the writer was somewhat fright- 
ened by a bee which came into his bedroom. 
The alarm was soon changed to curiosity, when 
the Bee was seen to examine an old inkstand, 
which had several holes in it for holding pens. 
The Bee would enter one of these holes, remain 
an instant, fly away out of the window, and 
presently come back to the same place again. 
So she buzzed about all that day and the next, 
and by the end of the second day she had filled 
up all the holes in the inkstand, and plastered 
them over neatly with mortar. She explored 
the central place, where the ink should be 
placed, but although it was dry, it did not suit 
her, and she departed. The holes were found 
to be divided into cells by partitions of mortar, 
and in each cell was a grub which would have 
become a Bee. 

Other Mason Bees build a mass of cells, 
placed side by side, in a lump, which they stick 
against the side of a wall, or in a corner. They 
love to work in the dark attic of a house. 



72 ABOUT BEES. 

where they are undisturbed, finding entrance 
through some crevice or knot-hole. 

They frequently fill the hollow stems of old 
raspberry vines, and the smaller kinds fill straws 
or nail holes. In fact, they occupy all sorts of 
odd and queer places, even filling up the scrolls 
of a snail shell. 

There is no better sport for a boy than the 
watching of one of the working insects in a 
quiet afternoon among the summer holidays. 
Unlike the birds, they do not mind the pres- 
ence of a visitor, and go right on with their 
w^ork. An ant hill, a Bee hive, a solitary Bee, 
a spider spinning his web, or a hornet building 
his paper mansion on the other side of the win- 
dow pane, will pay for many an hour's silent 
observation. And the quiet boy, with watch- 
ful eyes, will find many chances of seeing them, 
which he least expected. 



About S 



PIDERS. 



Articclata. — Insecta. 

0&D£B — ArachnidCB. Spider-family. 




►UKIOUS and beautiful forms 
are found in every department 
of the insect world. In all its 
infinite variety there are none 
which do not pay for careful, 
watchful study. "We have de- 
scribed two great tribes of 
workers. Each is busv, one 
not more than the other. " Go to the ant, thou 
sluggard," says the wise man, " consider her 
ways and be wise." 



7^ ABOUT SPIDERS. 

So doth the little busy bee 

Improve each shining hour; 
And gathers honey all the day, 

From every opening flower. 

We come now to the family of spiders. 
They are workers, too, in their way, but their 
labors are devised only to carry on their great 
business of preying upon other insects. They 
are carnivorous insects ; made to live upon 
flesh, just as the animals of the cat tribe live 
upon other animals, and as the hawks prey 
upon other birds. They serve a very impor- 
tant purpose in the insect world, for they help 
to keep other tribes, which would increase too 
rapidly, in their proper proportion. 

Many people have a natural dislike to a Spi- 
der. They are known to bite, that is, to sting — 
flies, at least — and there is a kind of fear that 
they may sting men or children. They seem 
to be very crafty, and then they run so fast, 
and in such unexpected ways, that young 
ladies think it quite proper to scream, or run, 
if a Spider happens to come her way. Then the 



GOLDSMITH'S SPIDER. 77 

housekeepers hate them because thej spin webs 
ill the corners ; the webs gather dust, and the 
room is untidy. The offending webs are swept 
down, but the Spiders are diligent, and in a few 
hours replace the webs. So the housewives 
search diligently, and without mercy put the 
persevering insects to death. It may be that 
perseverance, as an abstract quality, is not as 
valuable as some people think. Perseverance 
in a good cause, to attain a desirable object, is 
very commendable, but perseverance in an evil 
way only makes the evil worse. We are apt 
to think that ways which are not in harmony 
with our ways are wrong, and so the housewife 
very much dislikes the perseverance of the 
Spider. 

Goldsmith writes of a Spider which he 
watched. It was three days making its web ; 
then another Spider came, and in the battle 
which the two had for the web they nearly 
ruined it. Three days more were spent in 
repairing damages. When the web was com- 
plete again, a wasp was caught in it, and as the 



7^ ABOUT SPIDERS. 

Spider did not dare engage so powerful an ene- 
my, it cut the bands and let the wasp go. But 
the web was so torn that the insect thought 
it easier to make a new one, than to repair 
the old. This new web Goldsmith destroyed, 
and the Spider made another. Again he de- 
stroyed the work, but the poor creature could 
spin no more. It had spun four entire webs, 
besides making repairs enough to complete an- 
other, and had worked nearly fifteen days. Its 
only resource for a living was to drive another 
Spider from its web, and take possession. 

In shape and structure the Spiders are all 
similar, but unlike most other insects. A wasp, 
a bee, or an ant, has three distinct parts — a 
head, a body or thorax, and a belly or abdo- 
men ; and these three parts are connected by 
slender cords or tubes. The Spider's head 
and body seem to have been soldered into one 
piece, as if a man's head were set firmly upon 
his shoulders. Naturalists call this the cephalo- 
thorax, or head-chest. Its body, as well as the 
eight legs which are joined to it, is covered with 



HOW THEY SPIN. 79 

plate armor of strong scales. The fore part 
has two branches, which might be called arms, 
each furnished at the end with a curved sting, 
shaped like the claw of a cat. Each claw has 
a tiny opening near the point, through w^hich 
poison passes into the wound which it gives. 
When a fly is caught in its toils, the Spider 
runs to it, and strikes with these arms, inflict- 
ing wounds with its poisoned dagger-claws. In. 
difterent parts of the head the Spider has sev- 
eral eyes, generally eight, but sometimes only 
six, and these eyes are arranged di.flerently in 
difi:erent species. The number seems to make 
up for their want of motion. 

The hind part of the Spider is covered with 
fine supple skin, and clothed with hair, ITear 
the end are four, five, or six, little swollen spots 
or spinners. Each of these has a multitude of 
little tubes, so many that the microscope has 
shown a thousand in a space no bigger than a 
pin's point. Out of these tubes comes the mate- 
rial of the Spider's web. At a little distance, 
the threads from all these tubes of one spin- 



8o 



ABOUT SPIDERS. 



ner join, and then the strands from all the 
spinners are joined together. Thus the thin 
spider-line which one can barely see, as it glit- 
ters with moisture in the sunshine, and in many 
positions can not see at all, is made of four or 
six strands, each strand composed of more than 
a thousand threadlets. This wonderful cable is 
strong enough to support the Spider herself. 
She often stops spinning in mid-air, turns back 
and climbs up the satne cord to the place 
whence she let herself fall. 

The spinning of the Garden Spider is proba- 
bly not more curious than that of any other, but 
it is rather more easily observed. Sometimes 
one begins her web on the outside of a window, 
and is easily watched from within. She begins 
by pressing the spinners against the wood of 
the window frame; a little of the gum exudes, 
and fastens one end of the line. She runs 
along, giving out line as she goes, until she finds 
a good place to fasten at, where she presses her- 
self against the wall, making the other end se- 
cure. She first stretches a few lines about the 



THE GARDEN SPIDER'S WEB. 8 1 

Space which the web is to fill, forming a triangle, 
or a four-sided figure. She then draws a line 
across the middle of this space. All these lines 
she makes very strong, doubling some of them 
several times. If any of them seems to become 
slack, she fastens a line near one end, and pulls 
it aside, until the main line is taut. Now she 
goes to the middle of the cross line, fastens a 
line there, and then runs back to the margin 
and fastens it an inch or so from the end of the 
cross line. She goes to the middle, and 
stretches another line in another direction, and 
then another, as if she were putting iu the 
spokes of a wheel. While doing this she does 
not put in the rays or spokes on one side first, 
but draws her lines in opposite directions, keep- 
ing the strains all the time even. When she 
is about the first part of the work, running 
the marginal lines, and placing the first few 
spokes, she vv^orks slowly, stopping now and 
then to plan ; but as the vs^eb progresses, she 
seems to have solved her problem to her satis 
faction, and hurries on the work. 



82 



ABOUT SPIDERS, 



Presently the rays are all set. Then she 
goes to the centre, and lays down a spiral line, 
fastening it to every spoke, and drawing it 
round and round, at even distances, in ever 
widening circles, until she comes to the out- 
side. The main lines and rays are made stout 
and firm. The spiral lines are very elastic, and 
may be drawn far out of place without break- 
ing. The garden Spider finishes her web in a 
few hours. She works as well by night as by 
day ; in the dark as in the light. 

When her web is done, she hangs herself in 
the middle of it, with her head downwards, 
waiting until some insect becomes entangled in 
her snare. When she feels the web move, she 
rushes to the spot. If the game be small, she 
thrusts in her dagger, and kills it at once. If 
it be large, and there is danger that its strug- 
gles will tear the web, she at once winds rt 
round and round with cords, which she spins 
as she goes. She ties it, wing and foot, until 
its struggles can do no harm ; then she gives 
the fatal blow, and eats the victim at her lei- 



THE NEPHILA PLUMIPES. 83 

sure. If the insect is so large that she can not 
manage it, she cuts away the threads as quick 
as possible, and lets it go, before it has torn her 
web in pieces. 

A writer for the " Atlantic Monthly," a sur- 
geon in the United States Army, gives an inter- 
esting account of the spinning of a kind of Spi- 
der, Nephila jplumijpes, which he found on one 
of the sea islands near Charleston. These Spi- 
ders were quite large. The females were from 
an inch to an inch and a quarter long; the 
males were only about one fourth of an inch 
long, and about one hundred and twenty would 
have v/eighed as much as one of their buxom 
wives. Accident showed him that he could 
reel the silk from the living Spider. He there- 
fore gathered as many as he could find, and 
brought them north to experiment with. 
"When ready to spin, he fastened each in a 
little frame of cardboard, which would hold 
the insect without hurting it. Then he reeled 
the silk upon a suitable reel. From one he 
wound about one thousand yards, and from 



§4 ABOUT SPIDERS. 

another over iiDo miles of silk. A single thread 
sustained a weight of fifty-four grains. 

The silk from the same Spider was of differ- 
ent colors and qualities. At the same instant 
he wound from one insect one thread golden 
yellow, and another bright silver white. If the 
two ran together, they made one light yellow 
thread. The white silk, when dry, was firm 
and unyielding, suitable for the rays of a Spi- 
der's web. The yellow was very elastic, like 
that used for the spiral rings which bind the 
rays together. There was also a pale blue silk 
which seemed to be used to tie up an insect 
after it was caught in the web. Enough silk 
was reeled to be woven in a loom, upon a- warp 
of black silk, so as to make a bit of ribbon 
two inches wide, showing that it was real silk. 

The House Spider usually puts her web in 
some corner. She runs out as far as she in- 
tends to spread the web, fastens a thread to 
the wood, then goes back to the corner and out 
on the other side, until she comes opposite the 
place where she first made the thread fast, and 



THE HOUSE SPIDER'S WEB. 85 

there fixes the other end. Then she places a 
second and a third thread beside the first, for 
these make the foundation of her whole work. 
From these she draws other lines to the angle, 
and then she works back and forth over the 
wliole, until the piece of gauze is done. She 
then stretches a great number of threads from 
Bide to side above her web, crossing them every 
way. These lines are arranged not unlike the 
tackling of a ship, and often reach two or three 
feet high. The flies passing through the space 
become entangled, fall upon the web below, 
and are caught. Besides all this, she makes a 
round funnel, for a hiding place, below the 
web, in the corner, or behind some piece of 
furniture. Here she waits and watches, out of 
sight. If the least touch disturbs the web, she 
feels it, for the rays from every part pass down 
into this funnel, and she rushes forth to learn 
the cause. 

A Spider of Jamaica is called the Trap-doo^r 
Spider. This insect digs a burrow in the 
ground, and lines it first with coarse, rough 



86 



ABOUT SPIDERS. 



web, which seems more like the paper of the 
wasp's nest than the silk of the Spider. The 
inner lining is smooth and soft, and may be 
drawn out of the other, without injuring either. 
The tube is placed where the surface of the 
ground is a little sloping, and the mouth is 
covered with a door, made like the lining of 
the tube. This door is fastened bj a hinge at 
the upper edge, in such a position that it falls 
into place by its own weight. The outside is 
covered with earth, which perfectly conceals 
the nest. A stranger may well be startled at 
seeing a hole open in the ground at his feet, 
and a large Spider peep out to observe what is 
going on. One of these Spiders dug its tube 
in cultivated ground. After it was made, the 
earth was heaped over it about three inches; 
the Spider finished out its tube, and made a 
second door at the new surface. 

This Spider is about an inch and a half long. 
It leases its burrow at night and hunts for its 
prey. If anj' one attempts to raise the trap, it 
hooks its hind legs into the door, and its fore 



THE MTGALE. 87 

legs into the side of the tube, and holds on with 
all its might. It will suiFer its nest to be dug 
out of the ground and carried away without 
leaving it; in this way they have been caught 
and put where they could be watched. Other 
species which make their home thus are found 
in Australia and elsewhere. 

In Surinam, and on the Amazon river, Spi- 
ders are found of the genus Mygale, which 
destroy birds. When this was first reported, 
it was not believed, but the Spiders have been 
caught in the very act. When we consider the 
size which the}^ attain, the wonder ceases. One 
is described as two inches in length of body, 
and more than seven inches in expanse of legs. 
It was covered with coarse red and gray hairs. 
Some of these huge Spiders make a dense web; 
one digs a burrow two feet deep,. and lines it 
with silk. When the children catch one of 
these fellows, they tie a string about its waist, 
and lead it along like a dog. The Mygale 
sheds its hairs easily and they pierce the skin 



88 



ABOUT SPIDERS. 



of one who handles it, causing painful irrita- 
tion. 

The name Tarantula is given to several large 
Spiders that live in the ground and hunt for 
prey. The Italians have a belief that one kind 
will cause a disease which can be cured only by 
dancing a long while to peculiar music. The 
sting really makes but a slight wound. 

One member of this family lives in the water. 
Still it lives by breathing air, and therefore it 
takes a supply along with it down under the 
water into its nest. Like all the other Spiders, 
this makes its nest of silk ; it is generally about 
as large as an acorn, egg-shaped, and open 
below. This cell is filled with air; and if the 
Spider be kept in a glass vessel, it may be seen 
in its cell, resting in Spider fashion, with its 
head downward. Where the air came from 
was, for a long time, the question. Some 
thought it was the oxygen which was formed 
by the water plants. 

A few years since, Mr. Bell saw some of 
these Spiders spin their webs, and fill them 



CATCHING BUBBLES OF AIR. 89 

with air. When one had made her web, she 
went to the surface, grasped a bubble of air, 
descended quickly to her nest, and thrust the 
air in. Then she came up for more, and after 
twelve or fourteen journeys she had laid in her 
supply. When enough had been collected, the 
Spider crept in and settled herself to rest in her 
transparent cell. 

"The manner in which the animal possesses 
itself of the bubble is very curious. It ascends 
to the surface slowly, assisted by a thread 
attached to a leaf below and to one at the sur- 
face. As soon as it comes near the surface, it 
turns the extremity of the abdomen upwards, 
and exposes a portion of the body to the air 
for an instant, then with a jerk it snatches, as 
it were, a bubble of air, which is attached 
not only to the hairs which cover the abdomen, 
but is held on by the two hinder legs, which 
are crossed at an acute ans^le near the extrem- 
ity, this crossing of the legs taking place the 
instant the bubble is seized. The litile crea- 
ture then descends more rapidly and regains its 



9^ ABOUT SPIDERS 

cell, always by the same route, turns the abdo- 
men within it, and leaves the bubble." 

The whaler Spiders feed on the insects which 
swarm in the w^at^er, eating their prey in their 
homes. 

Another aquatic Spider builds a raft. It 
gathers together a mass of dry leaves and sim- 
ilar things which will float, and fastens it with 
silk threads. On this raft it sits, floating wher- 
ever the ^vinds and waters carry it. When the 
water insects come to the top, it seizes them 
before they can escape. Others fly over the sur- 
face for their prey, and fall into the jaws of this 
Spider-wolf It is quite large, and very beauti- 
fully colored and marked. 

At certain seasons of the year, large quanti- 
ties of gossamer threads are seen floating in the 
air. They fall upon the grass and streak it 
with fine lines. They gather on the trees. 
The steamboat, plowing up the long lanes of 
w^ater through forest and prairie, gathers 
streamers and pennons of gossamer on every 
pole, and the rough helmsman frets as the films 



MAKING GOSSAMER. 9 1 

catch npoD his eyebrows, and dim his sight. 
All this is made by Spiders. They climb to 
the tops of trees, and pushing the gossamer out 
at their spinners, let it float upon the air until 
its buoyancy is enough to carry them away. 
Balloonists have found these Spiders floating in 
the air above their cars. 

Says Gilbert White: ^' Every day, in fine 
autumnal weather, do I see these Spiders shoot- 
ing out their web and mounting aloft. They 
will go off from your finger if you will take 
them into your hand; last summer one alighted 
on my book, as 1 was reading in the parlor, 
and running to the top of the page and shoot- 
ing out a web, took a departure from thence. 
But what I most wondered at was, that it went 
off with considerable swiftness, in a place where 
no air was stirring; and I am sure I did not 
assist it with my breath ; so that these little 
crawlers seem to have, while mounting, some 
locomotive power, without the use of wings, 
and move faster in the air than the air itself." 

There are spiders which lie concealed in a 



92 ABOUT SPIDERS. 

rolled up leaf, and seize any insect which comes 
in the wa}^ Others lurk in the cup of a flower, 
and eat the fly that comes for honey. Some 
hunting Spiders leap upon their prey like 
tigers, and have a way of jumping sideways. 
They steal upon their game as a cat steals upon 
a bird. If the fly moves, the Spider moves too 
— backwards, forwards, or sideways — until the 
two seem to be moved by one unseen spirit. 
If the fly takes wing and alights behind the 
Spider, it turns about with the swiftness of 
thought, too quick for the eye to follow. 
When its movements have brought it within 
reach of its victim, its leap is sudden and deadly 
as lightning. 

The Spider is very watchful over its young. 
Most species do not lay eggs until two years 
old. Then the female prepares a cocoon of 
silk, very thick and strong, in which she places 
from fifty to a hundred salmon-colored eggs. 
This sack is often made of two dish-shaped 
pieces, fastened together at the edges. Some- 
times it is hidden in the crevice of a wall, or 



CARE OF THEIR EGGS. 93 

under the edge of a loose board. In this case 
it is securely fastened by a net-work thrown 
over and about it. It is often carried about by 
the mother, attached beneath the abdomen, or 
held in the jaws as a cat carries her kitten. 

If any attempt is made to carry away this 
treasure, which the mother always watches 
over, she resists it to the utmost. When taken 
from her, she becomes listless, as if stupefied; 
if restored, she seizes it eagerly, and runs away 
with it to a safer place. When the young are 
hatched they remain in the cocoon until, at the 
proper time, the mother bites it open and sets 
them free. Even then they do not leave her, 
but remain, like a brood of chickens, under her 
care. She often takes them upon her back; 
she provides food for them, and leads them 
about until they have age and strength to shift 
for themselves. 

The gentleman who obtained the silk spin- 
ners from Charleston harbor, procured a large 
number of these egg sacks, and in a short time 
had a brood of about two hundred thousand. One 



94 ABOUT SPIDERS. 

bright June day he left them on a tray in the 
sun, and on his return found his brood — baked. 
A supply of Spiders, which he kept in little 
paper boxes, furnished a fresh harvest of eggs, 
from which about seven thousand were hatched. 
They appeared in about a month after the eggs 
were laid. For a long time they seemed 
to eat nothing; then they shed their skins, 
and began to grow. As they grew, their 
numbers diminished, and it began to be evident 
that they were eating each other. Shut up in 
the sacks they had nothing else to eat, and the 
weaker ones were a pre}' to the stronger. They 
were then placed in inverted glass jars, with 
wet sponges in the mouths, and were fed with 
flies, bugs, and afterwards with such flesh as 
bits of chicken's liver. Some of the first fam- 
ily brought north seemed to go into a decline 
and die, for no cause which their keeper could 
understand. He tried various expedients v/ith 
them, but nothing did any good. At last he 
thouscht of o'lvinor tliem water, althouo-h he had 
never known that Spiders drank water. A 



BRUCE' S SPIDER. 95 

drop was given on the tip of a camel's hair 
pencil, and was eagerly seized. All the Spi- 
ders drank, some taking several drops. Be- 
sides water to drink they required some mois- 
ture in the air. They became quite tame; 
would eat and drink from a bit of stick, or a 
pin, and when stroked gently, would raise up 
the back like a cat, or put up a foot to push 
away the finger. 

As was said before, the Spider is a type of 
industry and perseverance, no less than the ant 
or the bee. The Scottish farmers love to tell 
that King Eobert Bruce once learned a lesson 
of endurance from a Spider. While wandering 
on the wild hills of Arran, he passed a night 
within a poor, deserted cottage. He threw 
himself down upon a heap of straw, and lay, 
with his hands under his head, unable to sleep, 
but gazing up at the rafters of the hut, fes- 
tooned with cobwebs. From long and dreamy 
thoughts about his hopeless condition, and the 
many evils which he had met, he was roused 
to notice the efforts of a poor Spider, which had 



9^ ABOUT SPIDERS. 

begun its work with the first gray light of 
morning. The insect was trying to swing by 
its thread from one rafter to another, but it 
constantly failed, each time swinging back to 
the point from which it sprang. Tweh^e times 
the little creature made the attempt, and twelve 
times it failed. Without delay it tried again, 
and the rafter w^as gained. " I accept 1 le les- 
son," said Bruce, springing to his fe'«t; "I 
shall again venture my life to win thn battle 
for my country." And the victory wa.' won. 




WINGED ANT -LI ON. -.Jfyrmeleo liheUuloides. 



About Dragon-flies. 



Articdlata. — Inskcta. 

Order — Neuroptera. Net-winged. 

Family — LibellulidoB. 




LONG, slender insect, with 
large head, swollen on either 
side by a huge eye, flying with 
four broad, gauzy wings, is a 
frequent mid-summer visitor. 
He and his mates range up and 
down in the air, pausing here 
a moment, then darting away in 
the most unexpected manner. He comes into 
the house with a great buzz, and makes vain 
attempts to fly back to free air through the 
window pane. He seems to have no particular 



I OO ABOUT DRA G ON- FLIES, 

business, except flyin;^ about, buzzing, and 
bumping his head. The children call hina a 
Darning-needle, because his body is straight 
and slender; and as its long and flexible tail 
twists about more than seems pleasant, they are 
afraid of it; they believe it can sting, and some 
call it a Horse-stinger. But the creature has 
no sting, and can do no harm to man, or beast. 
In the insect world he well deserves his name, 
Dragon-fly, for he devours multitudes of other 
insects. When dancing in the sunshine, or in 
the twilight shadows, he is busy catching gnats, 
or sweeping up other minute specks which fly 
in the air. He is not content, even, with such 
small game, but is the eagle among insects, 
pouncing upon unwary butterflies, which he 
drags to some bush to devour at his leisure. 
The water is his birth-place. The eggs, like 
a bunch of grapes, sink to the bottom and 
hatch out six-footed larvae, with dusky brown 
skins. Like many other grubs, when these 
youngsters grow too large for their clothes, 
they split them open, throw tbein away, and 



LARVA AND PUPA. lOI 

soon appear in a new and larger suit. When 
full grown, a pair of scales appears on the back, 
which is a mere susro:estion of wino^s. The 
head is then armed with a long, jointed trunk, 
fitted at the end with a pair of strong hooks. 
While at rest, this trunk lies folded over the 
face, like a mask; if any prey parses by, the 
trunk leaps forth, and the hooks grapple the 
unwary victim. 

The Dragon-fly lives as larva and pupa, two 
years. When ready to come out into the 
world, it climbs to the top of some water plant, 
into the sunshine. The eyes show when the 
change is coming. Instead of dark, dull places 
where eyes might be, they become clear and 
bright, and the real eye shines through the 
mask. If one can be found at this crisis, and 
fastened where the change can be seen, it will 
yield much amusement. 

First a rent comes in the skin along the 
back, to the face; here another rent opens 
crosswise, over the e3^es. I^ow that he has 
burst his case, he carefully picks out his legs, 



I O 2 ABOUT DRA G ON-FLIES. 

and then hangs his head down, motionless, as 
if dead. He has only hung his moist legs out 
to dry. Presently he lifts himself again, grasps 
the case with his feet, and slowly draws out his 
long tail, and wet, sodden wings. But the tail 
has not its full length, and the wings are folded. 
He rests awhile; the tail expands, the wings 
unfold, and as they harden, glisten like sheets 
of mica. While in this wet condition, the 
Dragon-fly is careful not to touch them, even 
with its body ; for a wrong tvA^ist now would 
make a deformity for ever. The change may 
be passed in a quarter of an hour, or may take 
several hours, according to the clearness of the 
air. When the wings are fully spread and 
hardened, and the bright colors of the mailed 
body are fully set, he leaves his twig and begins 
his long journey through the air. Like a 
newly commissioned Alabama, armed and sup- 
plied for a long cruise upon the high seas, he 
sets forth, a piratical rover, to capture, plunder, 
and destroy. 

While living in the water, this creature has 



HOW THE LARVA MOVES. I03 

a way of moving about peculiar to itself. If 
seen at the bottom of clear water, it seems to 
move merely because it wills to move, with 
nothing like walking or swimming — it goes. 
But if a few grains of sand be near, they seem 
to will to go backward, at the same time. Put 
one of the larvge into water colored with milk 
or indigo, and then suddenly change him into 
clear water, and the motion will be explained. 
He will be seen to spirt a stream of colored 
fluid into the clear water, and it will be found 
that he has in his abdomen a set of force 
pumps. These fill slowly from the fluid in 
which the larva floats, and then drive out the 
water backwards, while the same force which 
ejects the water, pushes the insect forwards. 
Some English ship-builders propose to drive 
steamships by this plan, which it maj^ be they 
borrowed from this very insect. They take 
water through the bottom of the ship, and then 
drive it out astern by powerful steam pumps. 
In this way they expect to force the vessel rap- 
idly through the water. 



I04 ABOUT DRAGON-FLIES. 

We nave mentioned the large globes of eyes 
on either side of the Dragon-fly's head. Under 
a small lens these eyes seem to be covered with 
fine net-work. A magnifier of larger power 
shows that the surface is composed of regular, 
six-sided faces, so that it resembles a minute 
crystal honey comb. Farther examination 
shows that each eye contains more than 12,000 
of these lenses, and that what we call the eye is 
only a bundle of eyes. 

Opticians grind a multitude of flat faces on- a 
rounded bit of glass, which they set in a tube. 
Any thing seen through this tube seems multi- 
plied as many times as there are faces on the 
glass; the image is very pretty, but very much 
confused. We need not suppose, however, that 
the Dragon-fly is puzzled by his compound eye, 
or that he sees more than one image. Although 
we have two eyes, we do not see double. The 
nerves which carry word to the brain that the 
eyes see something, meet just behind the eyes, 
and perhaps, for this reason, report but one 
object. If two eyes thus unite their results, so 



MULTIPLE ETES. I05 

that we do not see double, in the same way 
25,000 eyes in one head maj- combine all their 
results. The fact that we see so many images 
in the multiplying glass will not trouble us if 
we remember that our own eye is behind the 
glass, instead of a bundle of nerves, and there 
is no wa}^ of gathering all the images into 
one. 

There are many species of Dragon-flies, 
strong of wing, and beautifully colored with 
bright blue, green, scarlet, glossy black, or 
transparent white. The body is often of one 
hue, while the wings are barred or spotted with 
others. Often the male and female of the same 
species are variously marked. These bright 
colors always vanish when the animal dies ; in 
a few da^^s the most brilliant specimens will 
have faded to a blackish brown. The only 
way to preserve them is to remove the interior 
substance, and fill the space with paint of the 
proper color, and this method does not repay 
the time and labor spent. 

One tribe belonging to this family are called 



I o6 ABOUT DRA G ON- FLIES. 

Scorpion-iiies. The rings near the end of the 
tail are quite slender, and move easily in any 
direction. The last ring is stout and thick, aud 
beara a strong pair of forceps. When the fly 
is at rest, the tail is curv^ed over its back like 
that of a puppy, but when alarmed it flourishes 
the tail in a very alarming st^de, the forceps 
snapping as if something serious would happen 
if there were a chance. 

Some other members of the order Neuroptera, 
or nerve-winged insects, are worthy of notice. 

The large, prominent eyes of the Lace-wings, 
or Golden-eyes-, glow with changeful flames of 
gold and ruby, as if on fire. These insects are 
small, but their brilliancy and their broad 
wings make them quite conspicuous. The 
larva of the lace-wing is very voracious. It is 
particularly fond of the plant lice, and there- 
fore is quite useful. A single one will clear a 
densely crowded twig in a short time. It will, 
however, turn and eat the eggs in which its 
brothers are ready to hatch, if it can reach 
them. To prevent this, the instinct of the 



THE ANT-LION, IO7 

mother makes her spin a slender thread, like a 
bit of bristle, about a third of an inch long ; 
the lower end of this thread she glues fast to 
a twig, and on the upper end she leaves an ^gg 
about the size and shape of the letter 0. So 
she places a dozen in a group, which is easily 
mistaken for a patch of moss. For a long time 
these were really supposed to be a variety of 
moss, nobody suspecting that they were the 
eggs of an insect. When the first hatches, he 
falls down upon the twig. He reaches up to 
breakfast on another ^gg^ but he can not climb 
the slender waving stalk, so he creeps away, 
and finds his meal elsewhere. 

A somewhat celebrated insect of this family 
is the Ant-lion. In its perfect state it much 
resembles the Dragon-fly, but the wings are 
broader and softer. It is most remarkable 
when a larva. Then it resembles a flattened 
maggot, with long legs and large jaws ; but the 
legs are of little use for walking, as it moves 
mostly by means of its abdomen. It is very 
slow, and yet very voracious, living on insects 



I o8 ABOUT DRA G ON-FIES. 

much quicker than itself, which it catches alive. 
As it can not take them in open chase, it sets 
an ambush by digging a pit, and lying con- 
cealed at the bottom. In this work it begins 
at the outside. It presses its body down into 
the saud, and then backs round in a circle, 
plowing the earth and throwing it outward. 
So it goes round and round, drawing one fur- 
row after another until it comes to the middle. 
This plowing is repeated several times, as long 
as it will turn the earth outward. Then it 
begins to dig. It goes- to the middle, and flings 
the sand out with its head, and smoothes the 
sides of the pit, down to the centre, into a reg- 
ular funnel. If it finds small stones, it jerks 
them, one by one, over the wall. If too large 
for that, it takes them on its back and carries 
them up the slope, and tumbles them over the 
edge. Sometimes, after toilsomely tugging until 
a stone is nearly at the top, the pebble topples 
off and rolls to the bottom again, plowing a fur- 
row as it goes down. The Ant-lion tries again, 
pushing the load up the same furrow ; he 



THE ANT-LION'S PIT-FALL. I09 

works on until the stone is removed, or until 
repeated failure satisfies him that he is not 
equal to the task. Then he leaves the unfin- 
ished pit, and digs another. 

When finished, the pit is about two inches 
deep, and three inches in diameter. The Ant- 
lion lies at the bottom, only his jaws being in 
sight. When an ant, journeying that way, 
looks over the edge, the loose sand under its 
feet begins to slide, and lets it down into the 
pit. It struggles to regain the top, but that 
only hastens its fall, and down it goes into the 
jaws of the hungry monster which waits for it 
at the bottom. If the ant succeeds in climbing 
up, and is likely to get out of danger, the Ant- 
lion shovels sand upon its head, and fiings it 
after the escaping insect. Overwhelmed by 
this storm the ant is borne to the bottom. 
When the juices are sucked out of him, the 
empty skin is tossed over the mound, and the 
pit is put in order for the next unfortunate. 

Thus the Ant-lion lives for about two years. 
Then it wraps itself in a covering made of sand 



no ABOUT DRA G ON- FLIES. 

glued together, and bound by a kind of silk 
which it spins. In about three weeks it emer- 
ges in its perfect form. 

Another of the Neuroptera is the May-fly, or 
Ephemera. The early days of summer bring 
vast swarms of them, which vanish as suddenly 
as they come ; often a single day is sufficient 
for the entire round of their perfect life. Hence 
the name Ephemera — "(lasting) for a day." It 
is, however, a mistake to suppose that a day is 
enough for the entire life of the insect from the 
egg to the grave. On the contrary, two years 
are passed in the water before the winged form 
is assumed. Like other creatures that flit a 
few brief days about watering places — although 
it does not carry a Saratoga trunk full of finery 
— it can not do without a change of dress. So, 
after dancing its set in one costume, it retires 
to its chamber — a twig — kicks off its garment, 
and appears in another, bright and new, with 
larger wings, broader plumes, and longer train. 

In both dresses, the May -fly is very eagerly 
taken by fish, and adroit anglers use them, or 




ECTION OF TERMITES' NEST. 



TERMITES. 113 

imitate them, when they "would bring warj old 
trout from their deepest hiding places. Very 
much alike — i^ewport belles, and I^ewport 
Ma}' -flies ! 



Jermites. 

The remarka.ble insects known as Termites, 
or White Ants, though commonly called ants, 
are not classed with that order, but among 
the Neuroptera, on account of the structure 
of their wings in their perfect stage. Like 
the ants, the Termites liva in societies, which 
become immensely large. They build for 
themselves huge cities, great mounds, coni- 
cal like sugar-loaves, sometimes twenty feet 
hio:h, and more than a hundred feet in cir- 
cuit. They make these of clay, and so solid 
and strong, that the wild cattle climb on them 
without breaking through. Within they are 
full of chambers and passages. There are 



114 ABOUT TERMITES. 

apartments for the king and queen ; nurseries 
for the young; garrisons of soldiers; dwellings 
for workmen, and storehouses for food. These 
edifices are said to surpass the dwellings of 
ants, bees, and beavers, as much as the archi- 
tecture of Europeans excels the rude huts of 
Indians or Bushmen. Some species build in 
the ground, partly beneath and partly above 
the surface; others build on branches of trees, 
and often at a great height. 

One of the best known species is the Termes 
hellicosus of Africa. In Senegal, and parts of 
Central Africa, their numerous clusters of hills 
resemble the huts in the native villages. The 
first hill which they make, in beginning a 
settlement, rises above the ground perhaps a 
foot. While this o-rows laro^er and hio^her, 
others spring up at a little distance, and still 
others, until a circle of small hills surrounds 
the larger one in the centre. These all keep 
on growing; presently they join each other, 
and the middle cone includes or covers up the 
outer ones. Mean while the inside works 



THEIR BUILDINGS. II5 

which were first made, are pulled down, and 
the materials are used for building the outer 
cones. They have no precise form, the only 
cure being to make them firm and strong. 
Until they are six or eight feet high they are 
quite bare, but after that they increase more 
slowly, and grass often grows upon them. In 
the hot season, when the grass becomes dry, 
the whole resembles a large haystack. 

The royal apartment, as the most important 
room of the house, is placed in the centre. It 
is shaped like half of an ^gg^ cut lengthwise, 
and is at first about an inch long; it is after- 
wards enlarged to suit the increased size of the 
queen, until it is six or eight inches long, or 
even more. The openings through the walls 
and roof of this room are large enough to 
admit the workers which are in attendance, 
but the royal occupants can never pass out; 
they are life-long prisoners. A set of cham- 
bers about the royal cell contains the soldiers 
who protect, and the workers who serve the 
regal prisoners. These rooms are connected 



ii6 



ABOUT TERMITES. 



together; they extend a foot or two all round 
the central apartment. They are surrounded 
by the nurseries and the storehouses. The 
latter are built of clay, and filled with gums 
and similar vegetable substances. The walls 
and partitions of the nurseries are made of 
woody fibre, cemented together by the saliva 
of the insect. "When the nest is small, they are 
near the royal chamber. As the family grows, 
and the attendants of the queen become more 
numerous, the nurseries are moved farther 
away. They are enclosed in clay chambers, 
like the granaries, and the wooden partitions 
and linings would seem to prevent too sudden 
changes of temperature. 

A large arched open space, two or three feet 
high, is left under the central dome, with 
arched passages on every side, which allow the 
warm air to circulate freely, and keep the nur- 
series at a proper degree of heat. The shell 
which forms the great dome is traversed by 
large round or oval passages, several inches 
wide. These ascend spirally, quite to the top, 



UNDER GR O UND R OADS. 1 1 7 

opening into each other, and into the central 
dome at proper distances. Other passages of 
less size connect the larger ones, and others 
still lead far away under ground. Even if all 
the Termites within a hundred yards of a house 
were destroyed, those which live farther away 
would extend their galleries to the house, eat 
up the merchandise in it, and destroy every 
thing. If they can not go under ground in the 
way they wish, they make pipes along the sur- 
face, of the same material as their nest; they 
often carry these covered ways above ground 
over the deeper paths, and make frequent com- 
munications between them, so that they can 
escape by one, if they are attacked in the 
other. 

Each village of Termites has a king and 
queen, an army of soldiers, and a population 
of laborers. There are about a hundred work- 
ers to one soldier; they are about a quarter 
of an inch long, very busy and very swift. The 
soldiers are half an inch long, and as large as 
fifteen of the workers. The winged or perfect 



II 8 ABOUT TERMITES. 

iusects are nearly an inch long, and their wings 
spread above two inches and a half. They are 
equal in bulk to two soldiers. The young Ter- 
mites corae out of the nest just after the first 
shower has opened the rainy season. The im- 
mense swarms fill the air as Avith dense white 
snow flakes. Every living thing seems to be 
their enemy. The ants fall upon them and 
eat them ; birds come in flocks and pick them 
up; reptiles and ant-eaters devour them, and 
the black men gather them as the greatest deli- 
cacy. !N^ot one pair in a hundred thousand 
escapes alive, but that pair will, by and by, pro- 
duce a hundred thousand a day. 

While the winged insects are fl}ing, and 
being eaten, the workers are running about on 
the ground searching for them. If a pair is 
found, they are at once chosen king and queen, 
and their new subjects proceed to build them a 
house. They are shut up in a little clay cham- 
ber, with only one small entrance, too small to 
allow them to pass out. Presently the female 
begins to enlarge in a wonderful manner; and 



THE ^UEEN, 119 

the house has to be enlarged to correspond. 
In time, it is thought about two years, she is 
about three-fourths of an inch wide and three 
inches long — specimens have been found of 
twice that length. Her body is now oblong, 
banded at intervals of half an inch with dark 
muscles. The transparent skin is of a fine 
cream color, through which the intestines, and 
the motion of the fluids, may be clearly seen. 
When she has reached this size, she produces 
about eighty thousand eggs a day. The attend- 
ant workers carry these away to the nurseries, 
where they are hatched, and the young pro- 
vided with every thing needed, until they are 
old enough to shift for themselves. 

When a person enters a piece of ground 
which is marked by many of the covered ways 
of these insects, he hears an alarm given by dis- 
tinct hisses. After that he may search the 
paths for Termites in vain ; they have escaped 
by the underground lines. The tunnels are 
made large enough for passing and repassing 
without trouble. They serve as shelter from 



I20 ABOUT TERMITES. 

light and air, and particularly from the attacks 
of other ants. When driven from these defen- 
ces the ants pounce upon them, and carry 
them to their own nests to feed their young 
ones. If the defence is broken, the work- 
ers at once set about repairing it, and even 
if three or four yards is destroyed, the place 
will be rebuilt before the next morning. If 
the gallery is often destroyed, it will be given 
up and another made, unless it leads to some 
favorite plunder. The main roads are made 
deep under ground, going under the very foun- 
dations of houses and stores, and come up 
under the floors, or through the posts on which 
the building rests. While some are boring the 
posts through and through, and takitig out all 
their fibres, others climb the outside and enter 
the roof. If they find thatch, which they seem 
to like very well, they bring up clay and make 
covered ways in and through the roof as long 
as it will stand. Thus they carry away, bit by 
bit, every sill., and post, and beam, floor, ceil- 
ing, and partition. The outside seems fii-m 



ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH. 121 

and sound, but the whole will crumble at a 
touch. Sometimes they seem to know that a 
post sustains weight, and then they fill up the 
cavities which they make with clay, packing it 
in more solidly than man could. The posts are 
found filled with material as hard and compact 
as many kinds of building stone. They will 
eat the very mat on which a man sleeps. They 
carry away all the wood of his strong box, leav- 
ing a shell as thin as paper. They devour his 
books, his records, his correspondence. If a 
piece of furniture be left too long in one place, 
nothing will remain but the surface. A man 
may be rich to-day, and poor to-morrow from 
their ravas^es. 

It is a difficult task to destroy them. Any 
thing which is washed with corrosive sublimate 
they respect, but this can not be applied to 
many things. If the house is broken into, 
the soldiers come to the breach to defend 
it. They may be destroyed, but they are 
not those which do the mischief. The 
workers are left, and the business of the village 



122 ABOUT TERMITES. 

goes on just as before. The only plan which is 
at all sure is to continue pulling down the nest 
until the chamber of the queen is found, and 
she is destroyed. Then the others seem to be 
bewildered, lose courao^e, and finally abandon 
the nest. 

About the year 1780, some bales of goods, 
brought from St. Domingo, were stored in La 
Hochelle, and in other French seaports, and 
thus the Termites were introduced. At La 
Rochelle they took possession of the arsenal, 
and of the prefect's house, invading rooms, offi- 
ces, court, and garden. A stake driven, or a 
plank left, in the garden, was destroyed forth- 
with. One fine morning the records of the 
office were found ruined, though not the least 
trace of damage was seen on the outside. The 
Termites had mined the wood work, pierced 
tlie card-board, and eaten up parchments and 
papers, but had always scrupulously respected 
the upper leaf, and the edges of all the leaves. 
By chance a clerk raised one of the leaves 
which hid this ruin, and discovered the injury. 



About Wasps, 



Articdlata — Insecta. 

Order — Eymenoptera. Membrane-winged 

Family — YespidcB. Wasp-like. 




ASPS attract attention, for two 
reasons. They have sharp, 
venomous stings, which they 
are ready to use on small pro- 
vocation, and so make us 
afraid of them ; and they build 
for themselves curious homes, 
which are well worth our 
study. Those that we are most familiar with, 
build with mud, or paper. 

The paper makers usually choose some shel- 
tered place, under a fence rail, in a bush, in a 



126 



ABOUT WASPS. 



hollow tree, or under the projecting eaves of a 
house. As in the case of the humble bees, the 
mother of the family, single handed and alone, 
lays the foundation of the house, and makes 
preparation for rearing a family. She and a 
few like herself are the sole survivors of the 
thronged cities of last year. All the others 
perished at the coming of the frost which 
chilled her blood within her and kept her tor- 
pid till the warm south winds of spring awoke 
her from her long sleep. 

"When quite a little boy, the writer used to 
go awa}^ alone into a closet, to learn his les- 
son. The blinds at the only window in the 
room were always closed, giving barely light 
enough to read, when sitting on a stool 
beneath it. One spring day a Wasp came 
between the blind and the glass, and after 
much buzzing and much walking about, began 
to build. She first laid down, beneath the under 
edge of the upper sash, a patch of paper about a 
third of an inch in diameter ; then, standing on 
this, she raised cup-shaped edges all about her, 



HO W THE r B UILD. 1 2 7 

increasing outward and downward, like the cup 
of an acorn, and then drawing together a little, 
until a little house was made just about the size 
and shape of a white oak acorn, except that 
she left a hole in the bottom where she might 
go in and out. 

Then she began again at the top, and 
laid another cover of paper over the first, 
just as far away as the length of her legs 
made it easy for her to work. Now it was 
clear that she made the first shell as a frame 
or a scafibld on which she might stand to 
make the second. She would fly away, and 
after a few minutes come back, with nothing 
that could be seen, either in her feet or in 
her jaws. But she at once set to laying her 
paper-stuiF, which came out of her mouth, upon 
the edge of the work she had made before. As 
she laid the material she walked backward, 
building and walking, until she had laid a 
patch a little more than an eighth of an inch 
wide and half or three-quarters of an inch long. 
When laid, the pulp looked like wet brown 



128 ABOUT WASPS. 

paper, which soon dried to an ashen gray, and 
still resembled coarse paper. As she laid the 
material, she occasionally went over it again, 
putting a little more here and there, in the thin 
places; generally the work was well done the 
first time. 

So the work went on. The second paper 
shell "svas about as large as a pigeon's ^gg\ 
then a third was made as large as a hen's ^gg\ 
then another still larger. After a time the 
wasp seemed to go- inside to get her material, 
and it appeared that she was taking down the 
first house, and putting the paper upon the out- 
side. If so, she did not bring out pieces and 
patch them together as a carpenter, saving of 
work, would do, but she chewed the paper up, 
and made fresh pulp of it, just as the first was 
made. Of course the boy did not open the 
window, for he was too curious to see the work 
go on, and then he was afraid of the sting. 
How large the nest grew he never learned, for 
he soon after left the school, and saw no more 
of it. The Algebra and Latin which he learned 



FURNISHING THE INTERIOR. 1 29 

that term were soon forgotten — he was really 
too young to study either, then — but he has 
not forgotten how the Wasp made her nest. 

But he now knows pretty nearly what the 
Wasp did after his oversight of her ceased. She 
made the nest about as large as a goose Qgg<, 
hanging with the broad end up, and with a 
hole as large as one's little finger at the bottom. 
She took out of the inside all but two or three 
thicknesses, and then she built paper combs in 
the vacancy. These paper combs were not 
made like the combs of the honey bees, stand- 
ing upon edge, with the cells opening in the 
sides, but were hung to the top, with the cells 
opening downward. She made first a stout 
post or rope of paper, hanging from the centre 
of the room. To the end of this rope she fast- 
ened a floor, which she spread out flat and level 
until it nearly reached the sides of the room. 
Underneath this floor, which might quite as 
well be called a roof, or a ceiling, she made a 
number of cells, and laid an e^s^ in each. It is 
not quite settled whether she builds the cells 



130 ABOUT WASPS. 

first, and then lays the roof over them, or 
whether she makes the roof first, and then 
places the cells under it; probably the two 
parts are made nearly at the same time. 

As soon as the first eggs are hatched, the 
cares of the mother Wasp increase, for now she 
has a hungry family to feed. She must supply 
their wants, enlarge their cells, make more 
cells, lay mare eggs, make additions to the 
house, and all together. Was ever poor human 
mother, left to bring up a family alone, more 
driven with work ? In due time the older 
grubs are full grown, stop eating, and spin a 
silken cover over their cells. After a short sea- 
son, having passed from grubs to pupae, and 
then to perfect Wasps, they come forth. They 
take the heavy work upon themselves, and the 
toil goes merrily on. Day by day their num- 
bers increase, and soon the mother Wasp has 
nothing to do but lay eggs in the cells which 
her children have made. 

When the first tier of cells is full, another 
is made below it. Several pendant cords 



WASPS' FONDNESS FOR FLIES. I3I 

similar to the first, are fastened to various 
points of the tier above. Cells are hung upon 
them as before, and continually increased in 
number, until the several parts unite to form 
a second complete tier. The mouths are 
placed downwards, and the roof serves as a 
floor on which the Wasps walk when takitig 
care of the young brood. As among the hum- 
ble-bees, the first Wasps that come out are 
workers. The males and females are not seen 
until autumn. A large nest may contain seven 
or eight thousand cells, and each cell is occupied, 
on the average, by three tenants in succession. 
All the young grubs have to be fed ; not with 
honey, as young bees are fed, but with animal 
food, usually flies. We can easily see that a 
good sized Wasp's nest, or vespiary, may be 
quite a serviceable thing about the house, if, in 
the end, the Wasps do not become the greater 
nuisance. 

Mr. Wood says he has seen pigs, covered 
with flies, lying in the warm sunshine, and the 
Wasps pouncing upon them and carrying them 



13^ ABOUT WASPS, 

off. It was a curious sight to watch the total 
indifference of the pigs, the busy clustering of 
the flies, which actually blackened the hide in 
some places, and then to see the Wasp just 
clear the wall, dart into the dark mass, and 
retreat again with a fly in its fatal grasp. On 
the average, one Wasp came every ten seconds, 
60 that the pig-sty must have been a valuable 
store house for them. 

The Wasps are hearty eaters, as well as their 
grubs. They prey upon other insects, sugar, 
meat, honey, and fruit. Indeed, they are par- 
ticularly fond of ripe fruit, and always select 
the finest specimens, just when they are in their 
best condition, gnawing holes in them, and 
spoiling them for the table. Still it may be a 
question whether the good they do in destroy- 
ing flies and young caterpillars does not more 
than pay for all the fruit they eat. 

The nests of the paper-making Wasps usu- 
ally vary from six to twelve inchps in diameter. 
They sometimes become very much larger. A 
nest is preserved in a museum in Oxford, Eug- 



BEER DRINKERS, 1 33 

land, which fills a glass case four feet high, by 
two feet in width. It is turnip shaped, with a 
large knob at the top by which it hangs. This 
nest, when found, was about five inches in 
diameter. It was taken into a house, and hung 
near a window which gave the builders free 
passage to the open air. There was no danger 
in this, as the common Wasp has a much better 
temper than the hive bee, and is by no means 
as capricious in the use of his sting. Their cap- 
tor was disposed to give them every means of 
living, and supplied them daily with sugar and 
beer. Thej^ consumed daily a pound of sugar 
and a pint of beer. With plenty to eat they in- 
creased rapidly, and the nest grew as fast. In 
the chamber above, two other nests had been 
placed, and as those workmen were not fed, when 
they found that their kinsmen below were 
faring so sumptuously every day, they deserted 
their own houses, and joined the colony on the 
ground floor. 

The Chartergus Wasp of Ceylon, another 
paper maker, uses its nest as a permanent 



134 ABOUT WASPS. 

home, the same family living in it from year to 
year. This home is enlarged in a way which 
keeps its shape, and allows farther increase 
without trouble. The walls are shaped like the 
sides of a cow bell. The tiers of cells extend 
from side to side, like the regular floors of a 
house. When the house is full, another set of 
cells is built beneath the lowest floor, the wall 
is lengthened down as far, and a new floor is 
made to shut up the bottom; so that the new 
house is the old one with a new story under. 
In fact, probably all the Wasps learned to 
build by reading Gulliver's Travels. The bells 
of this Wasp are usually about a foot long ; 
one is described which was six feet Ions:, and 
of corresponding width. 

A South American Wasp has been called 
Myrainira. It builds a nest of a dark, blackish 
brown substance, like papier 77idche. The out- 
side of the nest is thickly studded with pro- 
jecting spikes or thorns. Their exact use 
is not known ; some have thought that 
they are to protect the nest from wild beasts; 



MUD BUILDERS. 1 35 

others suggest that thej are meant to conceal 
the entrances. The tiers of cells are not flat, 
but shaped like inverted bowls; the dishes 
grow broader and flatter towards the bottom of 
the.nest. 

The other branch of the Wasp family in- 
cludes the Mud-diggers, or Dirt-daubers. Up 
in the attic of any old house in our country, 
east or west, the children will often find, stuck 
on the walls and rafters, lumps of mud of vari- 
ous sizes and shapes. Some are as thick as 
one's finger, others as large as one's fist. If 
one of these shapeless lumps be opened 
carefully, it will be found to be a mass of 
cells, each lined with a thin coat of brittle, 
shelly substance. The builders of these cells 
are commonly called mud Wasps. When 
one of these masons has chosen a place, and 
has begun to work, she brings in her jaws a 
lump of soft mud. It is not certain where she 
got it — whether she gathered some dust and 
moistened it with the liquid of her mouth, or, 



13^ ABOUT WASPS. 

as some think, she gathered it where the earth 
is softened by the wash of the sink. At any 
rate, she has kneaded it perfectly, and she 
spreads it as easily as the mason lays his mor- 
tar. 

Mr. Gosse watched a Dauber, and tells some 
curious things about her. The first cell was 
nearly done: the Wasp had just closed the 
mouth. While gone for more, a pin was thrust 
through the mud into the cell. When the 
Wasp came, she laid her mortar over the hole, 
spreading it very skillfully and evenly. When 
gone again, the pin made another hole, which 
she closed up ; and so for several times. 
Finally Madam Wasp got angrj^ and began to 
buzz about, trying to catch the house-flies which 
were near. She seemed quite certain that 
they had done the mischief, and waited after 
she had laid more mortar, as if expecting to 
" catch them at it." Then Mr. Gosse broke off 
a large piece of the side and bottom, showing 
the grubs, and the small spiders which she had 
tucked in for her children's food. This breach 



A WASP IN TROUBLE. '^ I37 

she repaired as quickly as possible, in two or 
three loads, laying the mud all round the hole, 
and closing up at the middle. 

Presently she began to build another cell, 
and again she found trouble. A tin-tack was 
placed in the mud, just where she would lay 
the next load. When she came back, she 
seemed quite " bothered ;" she ran back and 
forth over the cells for some time, with the 
mud in her jaws, at a loss what to do. A 
hole she could stop up, but here was some- 
thing in the way. If she should lay the 
mortar in its place, the tack would be more 
firmly fixed. If she should place it else- 
where, it would be wasted, or might do harm ; 
if she would try to remove the evil, she must 
lay down her burden. At length she seized 
the tin-tack in her jaws and pulled it out, drop- 
ping the mud as she did it. [N'ext time she 
went away, a bit of worsted was pressed into 
the mud, which made still more serious trou- 
ble, as the bii which she could seize would 
yield without coming away. Still, by taking 



138 ABOUT WASPS. 

hold of the different parts, one after another, 
and tugging at them a long time, and by walk- 
ing round and round with it in her mouth, she 
at length pulled it out. 

The Dauber Wasp builds the walls of the 
cell, and lays an ^gg. Then she finds some 
spiders of a beautiful green species, and put3 
them in, bringing them very carefully in her 
jaws and feet. These she walls up with the 
^%g^ and the grub, when hatched, eats up the 
soft parts of the abdomen. 

When autumn comes, the Wasps seek for 
hiding places in the crevices of houses, where 
they may pass the torpid months. Sometimes 
they crawl away where their presence is not 
desired — into clothing, and between sheets. 
An acquaintance had a beautiful black pointer 
dog, named Don. Don had a great dislike for 
black Wasps, and when they began to creep 
about, looking for their hiding places, he killed 
very many of them. He would draw back his 
lips from his teeth, so that they might not sting 
him, and then snap them in his teeth, throwing 



TEL LOW WASPS, 139 

them quickly on the floor. If the Wasp writhed 
or crawled, another and another snap was sure 
to follow, until the crushed insect showed no 
more sio^ns of life. 

A large and fierce variety of Wasps is called 
the Hornet. Its sting is very venomous, and 
its temper none *of the best. It will follow a 
person, single handed, with great perseverance, 
when its wrath has been provoked. 

Another YQvy tetchy and hot tempered little 
thing, is a smaller variety, known to school 
boys as Yellow Wasps. They are usually quiet 
enough when undisturbed, but woe to the fool- 
ish boy who throws a .stone, or thrusts a 
stick into their paper house. The angry swarm 
issues forth ; they buzz about the ruined nest 
for a moment, and then, discovering the author 
of the mischief, they fly in solid column to 
avenge the wrong. If the unlucky urchin has 
not speedily taken himself far away, he will 
have good cause to repent an injury to a quiet 
and unoffending, if not inoffensive, community. 
These fellows do not give any warning, like the 



T^^O ABOUT WASPS. 

honey bee, but true as an arrow to the mark, 
they go straight at you, and ear, eye, cheek, lip 
— the part hit, suffers. The best course for 
the boy is to pocket the aftrout, and put some 
aqua ammonia, also called spirits of hartshorn, 
on the wound. Better still, let the Wasps alone 
in the outset. If it is necessary to remove 
them, put a wisp of straw on the end of a pole, 
and burn them out at nightfall. If it is desired 
to remove a nest with the inhabitants, for 
study, tbe Wasps may be quieted with chloro- 
form, applied at the bottom of the nest, by a 
bunch of cotton. 



ill 



n'> \y/r., 




THE MIGRATORY LOCUST. 




GRASSHOPPER LAYING EGGS. 



About Locusts. 



Abticulata — Insecta. 

Obdeb — Orthoptera. Straight-winged. 

Family — LocvsUdm. Locust-like. 




'^^*^=^OCUSTS and Grasshoppers belong 
to the same order, and few but 
naturalists know the differences 
between them, or are able to dis- 
tinguish the species of either. 
They have the same general 
shape — a long body, stiff, folded, 
fan-like wings, under straight, 
hard wing-covers, a head not unlike that of a 
horse, and long legs, the last pair having long 
and very strong thighs, with which they leap 
very far. The Arabs say that the Locust was 



144 ABOUT LOCUSTS. 

made of scraps of all animals. That it has the 
head of the horse, the horns of the stag, the 
eye of the elephant, the neck of the ox, the 
breast of the lion, the body of the scorpion, the 
hip of the camel, the legs of the stork, the 
wings of the eagle, and the tail of the dragon. 
The wings of some are spotted, and the spots 
have been supposed to foretell future events. 

Locusts have been counted among the most 
fearful plagues which have ever punished a 
nation. In Eastern lands they have appeared 
in astonishing numbers; their swarms have 
darkened the sun; they have eaten every green 
thing, leaving the land behind them black as if 
burned with fire. They are not even content 
with that which is green, but devour every 
thing which can be devoured — linen, woolen, 
silk, leather, the very varnish of the furniture. 

In 1748 the locusts appeared early in June 
in Plungary, on the Danube. In July they 
were terribly destructive throughout Poland, 
and at the middle of August they appeared in 
clouds in London. In one night they ate the 



DESCRIBED BT THE PROPHET, 145 

grass and the foliage of trees about Vienna, 
making the forests bare as brooms. In Poland 
they covered the country for miles, and were 
heaped up a foot thick; when they alighted 
they covered the ground like falling snow. At 
Warsaw soldiers were sent out against them 
with cannon. The firing of great guns scat- 
tered them and drove them away. In Italy 
the government offered rewards for them, and 
12,000 sackfuls were gathered, cast into pits, 
and covered with quicklime. 

The prophet Joel gives a description of their 
coming, both sublime and accurate : " A day 
of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds 
and of thick darkness, as the morning opened 
on the mountains; a great people and a strong. 
A fire devoureth before them, and behind them 
a flame burneth. The land is as a garden of 
Eden before them, and behind them a desolate 
w^ilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 
The appearance of them is as the appearance 
of horses, and as horsemen shall they run. 
Like the noise of chariots on the tops of moun- 



1^6 ABOUT LOCUSTS. 

tains so shall the j leap; like the noise of a 
. flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a 
strong people set in battle array. They shall 
run like mighty men ; they shall climb the wall 
like men of war. And they shall march every 
one his ways, and they shall not break his 
ranks; neither shall one thrust another. They 
shall walk every one in his path, and when 
they fall upon the sword they shall not be 
wounded. They shall run to and fro in the 
city. They shall run upon the wall. They 
shall climb up upon the houses. They shall 
enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth 
shall quake before them ; the heaven shall 
tremble; the sun and moon shall be dark, and 
the stars shall withdraw their shining." 

The prophet also mentions the usual way in 
which the locusts are destroyed : " I will re- 
move far off" from you the northern army, and 
will drive him into a land barren and desolate, 
with his face toward the east sea, and his 
hinder part towards the utmost sea, and his 
stink shall come up because he hath done greai- 



BE A UTY POLL O WS DES TR UC TION. 147 

things." This prophecy may refer to the com- 
ing of an army of human beings, but the 
description literally applies to the march of 
these insects as described by historians. Mr. 
Barron says that in 1784, and in 1797, two 
thousand miles in South Africa were covered 
with Locusts, which, being borne into the sea by 
a northwest wind, formed, for fifty miles along 
the shore, a bank three or four feet high; and 
when the wind was in the opposite point, the 
horrible odor from them was perceptible a hun- 
dred and fifty miles away. 

Most scourges bring in their train benefits 
which fully repay, if they do not many fold sur- 
pass, the injury inflicted. The prairies rejoice 
in a greener verdure after the fire has con- 
sumed the withered grass. So a land which 
has been choked with rank shrubs and with- 
ered bitter grasses, after it has been swept by 
the Locusts, soon wears a more beautiful dress, 
with new herbs, superb lilies, fresh annual 
grasses, and young and juicy shrubs, which 
afford sweet pasture for wild cattle and game. 



148 



ABOUT LOCUSTS. 



Locusts are eaten by all sorts of quadrupeds, 
by many birds, large and small, and even by 
man. In the countries which they ravage, the 
people have nothing else left to eat, and learn- 
ing from necessity, they continue to eat Locusts 
from choice. The Arabs boil them and dry 
them in the sun. Others soak them in oil. 
In other places they are gathered in heaps 
and salted. The wings are taken off, and 
the bodies eaten as meat, or they are 
dried, ground, and made into bread. They 
have even been exported, and armies have been 
relieved by them. The African Bushman 
delights in a swarm of Locusts, as his choicest 
game, furnishing plenty of food without having 
to work for it. He makes large fires, and the 
Locusts, flying through the flame, have their 
wings scorched, fall into the fire, are roasted 
and eaten. Those that remain are ground 
between stones, and kept for another meal. 
Europeans dislike them, but the fault is proba- 
bly in the cooking; Dr. Livingstone thinks 
them very good eating when well prepared. 



THE YOUNG LOCUST. ^49 

Honey is eaten with them, when it can be had, 
as it assists digestion. 

Does this remind us of John the Baptist, 
whose "meat was locusts and wild honey." 
It has been questioned whether the quails 
which the strong east wind blew together for 
the Israelites in the desert, were not truly 
Locusts; there is doubt whether the word 
translated quail had ever that meaning. The 
Jews ate Locusts, and distinguished between 
such as were clean or unclean. 

The young Locusts do not pass through the 
several changes which most insects undergo. 
The bee, for example, is first a grub, then a 
chrysalis, then a perfect, winged bee. The 
Locust comes from the ^gg a Locust, but wants 
wings, which come gradually. The eggs are 
laid in the ground. The female pierces the 
ground with a long, two bladed, hollow instru- 
ment. "When it is forced into the soil, the 
blades open a little, and press the earth aside, 
while a dozen eggs are passed into the cavity 
then formed. The contrivance is not unlike a 



IS^ ABOUT LOCUSTS. 

corn-planter, which makes a hole, drops the 
corn, and covers it, all at once. The Locust 
goes about thus, planting her eggs, until she has 
deposited several hundred. They remain during 
the winter, and until the warm sun next sum- 
mer hatches them, bringing out little creatures 
as large as gnats. These stay a while in the 
nest, and in the ground near by, and then come 
forth, hopping about without wings. As they 
grow they shed their skins, each time appearing 
in a new, larger, and more perfect dress. By 
the third or fourth change, wings begin to 
appear, and by the sixth they are full fledged. 
The common Grasshoppers make their entire 
growth in one season, but the terrible migra- 
tory Locust, which has been mentioned above, 
is said to live in the ground two years, and 
come forth in the third. 

It is often a matter of surprise that insects 
like the Locusts, the chinch-bugs, and others, 
should not be observed for many years, and 
then should appear in swarms of such immense 
numbers, and do such terrible mischief. Many 



THEIR PRODUCTIVENESS. 1 5 1 

attempt to account for this by supposing that 
the ground has some hidden power of sponta- 
neous production, which is thus fitfully exerted 
It is probably the fact that these insects never 
entirely disappear ; that no season passes with- 
out producing enough to keep up the succes- 
sion. They are exceedingly productive, so that 
a few may be the parents of a multitude. But 
the dangers which surround the eggs and the 
young, eaten as they are by every kind of bird 
and insect, and destroyed by myriads by unsea- 
sonable cold and rain, sweep them away, and 
leave only a remnant for seed. If only one in 
a thousand escapes, that one will reproduce a 
thousand. Thus if two favorable seasons fol- 
low in succession, the scourge appears, and the 
crops suffer. 

In the south of Europe rewards are regu- 
larly paid for the collection of Locusts and of 
Locusts' eggs. The city of Marseilles expended 
20,000 francs for that purpose, in one year. A 
franc is paid for about two pounds and a quar- 
ter of eggs. In Italy large quantities have been 



152 ABOUT LOCUSTS. 

gathered and thrown into tlie streams. There 
is a slight dift'erence in the piercer of the Locust 
and of the Grassliopper, but the method of 
placing the eggs in the ground is essentially the 
same. 

One of the most noted among the Grasshop- 
pers is the Katy-did. This insect is of a pale 
green color ; its head seems to have been 
squarely chopped off; its wing-covers are 
rounded, and enclose the wings and body like 
the sides of a pea-pod. It lives in the branches 
of trees, and does not lay its eggs in the ground, 
but deposits them upon the twigs and branches 
in regular rows. The song of the Katy-did is 
one of the cheerful sounds of autumn, save that 
from constant repetition it becomes tiresome. 
It is not truly a song, for it is not made by the 
mouth. 

" The musical organs of the male consist of a 
pair of taborets. They are formed by a thin, 
transparent membrane stretched in a strong, 
half-oval frame in the triangular overlapping 
part of .each wing cover. During the day they 



THE KATY-DID. IS3 

are silent, but at niijht the males beofin the jov- 
ous call by which they enliven their silent 
mates. This proceeds from the rubbing of the 
taboret frames against each other when the 
wing covers are opened and shut; and the 
notes are repeated for hours together. The 
sound may.be heard in the stillness of the night 
to the distance of a quarter of a mile. At the 
approach of twilight the Katy-did mounts to 
the upper branches of the tree in which he 
lives, and, as soon as the evening shades pre- 
vail, begins his noisy babble, while rival notes 
issue from the neighboring trees, and the groves 
resound with the calls ' Katy-did-she-did, she- 
didn't, she-did,' the livelong night." 



154 THE HUNTER FAY. 

He put his acorn helmet on; 

It was plumed of the silk of the thistle-down; 

The corslet plate that guarded his breast, 

"Was once the wild bee's golden vest; 

His cloak, of a thousand mingled djes, 

Was formed of the wings of butterflies ; 

His shield was the shell of a lady-bug queen, 

Studs of gold on a ground of green ; 

And the quivering lance which he brandished bright, 

Was the sting of a wasp he had slain in fight. 

Swift he bestrode his fire-fly steed ; 

He bared his blade of the bent-grass blue; 
He drove his spurs of the cockle seed, 

And away like a glance of thought he flew. 

The moth-fly, as he shot in air. 

Crept under the leaf, and hid her there; 

The katy-did forgot its lay ; 

The prowling gnat fled fast away ; 

The fell mosquito checked his drone, 

And folded his wings till the fay was gone; 

And the wily beetle dropped his head, 

And fell on the ground as if he were dead. 

They watched till they saw him mount the roof 

That canopies the world around ; 
Then glad they left their covert lair, 
And freaked about in the midnight air. 

. The Culj)rit Fay. 



I 



^ 




^PKEP 



TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE MOSQUITO. 



About Mosquitoes. 



Articulata — Insecta. 

Order — Diptera. Two-winged. 

Family — Culicidoe. Culex, A gnat. 




,HE Mosquito is a nuisance. He 
sings and then he bites ; and his 
singing is usually notice that he 
intends to bite. He comes in the 
night, when the faint and sultry- 
air persuades the sleeper to throw 
off the protecting cover, and sleep 
flies before him. If one seeks a 
shelter from the glaring sun, under the shade 
by the brook-side, myriads of these gauze- 
winged musicians warn him away from their 
realm. The wild forest is full of them. The 



15^ ABOUT MOS^ UITOES. 

heavy timber, from June to September, is utterly 
uninhabitable, unless constant war is made 
against the Mosquitoes. Every bit of standing 
water, and every purling rill, teems with them. 
The trees and bushes every where shelter them. 
Shake a bough, and a swarm rises from it ; 
land from a boat, and a cloud tender a too cor- 
dial reception. They gather like hungry poli- 
ticians about the dispenser of official favors. 

iTothing but thick leather and woolen will pro- 
tect your ancles or your wrists. You can save 
your face in only one way. Wear a soft hat that 
you can sleep in ; get a yard of black lace, sew 
the ends together, and draw round the crown of 
your hat one end of the bag which you make, 
while you gather the other end under your chin. 
The brim of the hat will keep the veil from the 
face, and the disappointed Mosquitoes will rave 
in vain against the outside. In a few moments 
one becomes so accustomed to the veil that it 
does not interfere with sight, although it is in the 
way in eating and drinking. It is no exaggera- 
tion to say, that in the dense forest, in June, 



I 



TORTURE BT MOSQUITOES. 159 

the Mosquitoes have gathered upon the back of 
a man sitting clown to rest, so thickly as to hide 
the color of his coat, whether light or dark, 
with the brown of their wings. 

The "Rev. Walter Colton tells how the miners 
in California made culprits disclose the truth 
by means of Mosquitoes. A rogue had stolen 
a bag of gold and hid it. Neither persuasions 
or threats could make him tell where it was 
concealed. He was sentenced to receive a hun- 
dred lashes, but was told that he would be let off 
with thirty, if he would tell what he had done 
with the gold. He refused. The thirty lashes 
were laid on, but he was as stubborn as a mule. 
He was then stripped, and tied to a tree. The 
Mosquitoes, with their sharp bills, went at him, 
and in less than three hours he was covered 
with blood. Writhing and trembling from 
head to foot, he exclaimed, " Untie me, untie 
me, and I will tell where it is !" " Tell first," 
was the repl}^ So he told where it might be 
found. Then some of the party, with wisps, 
kept off tlje hungry Mosquitoes, while others 



i6o 



ABOUT MOSQUITOES. 



went where the culprit directed, and found the 
bag of gold. He was then untied, washed with 
cold water, and helped to his clothes, while he 
muttered, as if talking to himself, " I couldn't 
stand that, anyhow." 

There is no doubt that a man would perish 
in a short time, from loss of blood, and from 
the fever caused by the poison of their bites, 
if exposed, as this man was, with no means of 
defence. 

The largest kind of Mosquito about the Mis- 
sissippi river is called the " Gallinipper." The 
boatmen sa}^ that it is as large as a goose, and 
that it carries a brickbat under its wing, on 
which to sharpen its bill. 

Cattle are not troubled by Mosquitoes, but 
horses suffer terribly. The lumbermen drive 
them away from their camps by making low 
fires of chips and damp grass. In the coolness 
of evening, the smoke from these " smudge " 
fires hangs heavily over the ground, and affords 
considerable protection, which even animals 
seek. 



THE LOGGING CAMP, l6l 

On a still night such a camp is very pictur- 
esque. The low log hut by the river; the tall, 
sombre pines, towering above dense masses of 
maples, and ragged outlines of oaks ; the strag- 
gling fires, that thrust out tongues of fitful 
flame, and reek with thick smoke, which 
spreads upon the ground, or lazily rolls over 
the roof; the long, level lines of blue haze 
which the smoke finally draws against the foli- 
age of the trees ; the solemn stillness resting 
over all, broken only by the hoot of the owl, 
the wail of the whip-poor-will, or the tinkle of 
the rippling stream, while the bright eyed 
climbing stars replace the waning twilight; 
compose a scene too lovely to be spoiled by 
millions of myriads of swarming, howling, rav- 
ing, hungry Mosquitoes. 

The Mosquito is an insect of the water. 
Early on a summer morning, even before sun- 
rise, the mother may be found laying her eggs. 
They must be placed where there is warmth 
enough to hatch them, and where the young 
creatures which pop out may go at once into 



1 62 ABOUT MOSQUITOES, 

the water. So the careful insect, like the 
mother of Moses, puts her children into a little 
ark, which she leaves on the surface of the pool. 
The ark she makes of the eggs themselves. 
She rests on a bit of grass, or a leaf, at the top 
of the water, holding to it by the first and sec- 
ond pair of legs. The third pair she crosses 
behind her like the letter X. The first ^gg is 
causrht and held between the lesrs. Then 
another and another are fastened to the first 
by the gum which covers them, until fifteen or 
twenty have been set up side by side, as one 
might set up a number of ears of corn, or like 
the seeds in the head of a sunflower. 

When the mass becomes too heavy for her 
to support, she lowers it upon the water, but 
Btill holds it by putting her feet on either side, 
until two hundred and fifty or three hundred 
eggs have been laid. Those at the sides are 
higher than those in the middle, while those at 
the ends are raised somewhat more. Thus the 
whole mass is shaped much like a canoe. 
These tiny black boats, about as large as grains 



WRIGGLERS. 1 63 

of wheat, may be found floating upon the top 
of any tub, or barrel of water, which has stood 
for some days, i^othing can harm them, if 
some other creature does not eat them up. 
The storm may dash them against the shore, 
but they are too light to break ; a torrent of 
water may be poured upon them, and they 
come out of the bubbling foam as buoyant as 
air, and as dry as a duck ; the water may freeze 
solid, but their life is not destroyed. 

In a few days — three are usually enough, if 
warm — the eggs hatch, and each sends a wrig- 
gler down into the water, through a hole in the 
bottom. The little fellow swims about, and 
presently hangs himself by his tail to the sur- 
face. If disturbed, he goes down out of the 
way, but soon comes back, and rests, as before, 
with the tip of his tail out of water. He does 
this, just as other swimmers do, because he 
would keep his nose above water. The odd 
thing about it is, that his nose, or, at least, the 
tube which he breathes through, is not on his 
face, but at the tip of his tail. It ends in a few 



164 ABOUT MOSQUITOES. 

hairs, which spread in a star-form, and are 
oiled, to repel the water. Thus the tail is both 
nose to breathe through, and buoy to keep 
itself at the top of the water. He lives upon 
the impurities in the water, and so serves a 
very useful purpose in the world. 

By and by, he changes into a pupa, and then 
he turns himself over, end for end. He did 
breathe through his tail ; now he breathes 
through his ears, or a pair of tubes which look 
like ears, and are thrust up, just a little, out of 
the water. His tail is now like the tail of a 
fish, and by it he can move himself through the 
water as he pleases. He remains thus about 
fifteen days, and then takes a new form, 
exchanging his home in the water for a life in 
the air. 

When the warm sun shines on the water, the 
change comes. The pupa rises to the surface, 
and thrusts out his head and shoulders. The 
cover bursts, and the plumed head appears, fol- 
lowed by the shoulders, and the filmy wings. 
iN'ow is the time of danger. If an unlucky puff 



HOW SHE STINGS. 1 65 

of air sweep the water, over goes our sailor, his 
wings are wet, and his voyage lost, just as he is 
ready to come into port. His old garment lies 
upon the water. It is his life-boat. His body 
is the mast, and his drying wings are the sails. 
Now his slender legs are dry, and with them he 
feels for the surface of the pool. He lifts him- 
self free from his cast-off coat, rests an instant 
on the water, and then leaps into the air, a sing- 
ing, stinging Mosquito. 

But all the Mosquitoes do not sting. The 
males w^ear a pair of plumes upon their heads, 
and spend their days in a ceaseless dance in 
the sunbeams. Those that bite are the females. 
One gently drops on your neck or hand, with 
footstep so light that you feel it not ; she looks 
about for a moment, hesitating as to where she 
will begin to bore. ^N'ow she has found the 
place, and her needle tongue goes down into 
the skin. Now you feel the prick, and now 
you may see her chest heave as she pumps up 
the red fluid. No speculator, boring for oil, 
ever felt happier over a flowing well, than our 



1 66 ABOUT MOSQUITOES. 

borer over the flowing fountain which she has 
tapped. I^ow her abdomen expands, more and 
more, until it seems that she will burst. At 
last she has enough — too much, in fact, for 
her greed will cost her life. She draws up the 
rod, and heavily flies away. Her light wings 
can scarcely bear the increased burden. She 
will die of surfeit. 



TO A MOSQUITO. 

Fair insect! that, with thread-like legs spread out, 
And blood-extracting bill and filmy wing, 

Dost murmur, as thou slowly sail'st about, 
In pitiless ears full many a plaintire thing, 

And tell how little our large veins should bleed, 

Would we but yield them to thy bitter need. 

Unwillingly, I own, and, what is worse. 
Full angrily men hearken to thy plaint; 

Thou gettest many a brush and many a curse. 

For saying thou art gaunt, and starved, and faint: 

Even the old beggar, while he asks for food, 

Would kill thee, helpless stranger, if he could. 



BR r ANTS MOSQUITO. 1 67 

Beneath the rushes was thj cradle swung, 

And when, at length, thj gauzj wings grew strong, 

Abroad to gentle airs their folds were flung, 
Rose in the skj and bore thee soft along; 

The south wind breathed to waft thee on thj way, 

And danced and shone beneath the billowj bay. 

Calm rose the citj spires, and thence 

Came the deep murmur of its throng of men. 

And as its grateful odors met thy sense, 
They seemed the perfume of thy native fen. 

Fair lay its crowded streets, and at the sight 
Thy tiny song grew shriller with delight 

At length thy pinions fluttered in Broadway — 
Ah, there were fairy steps, and white necks kissed 

By wanton airs, and eyes whose killing ray 

Shone through the snowy veils, like stars thro' mist; 

And fresh as morn, on many a cheek and chin, 

Bloom'd the bright blood thro' the transparent skin. 

Sure these were sights to touch an anchorite ! 

What! do I hear thy slender voice complain? 
Thou wailest, when I talk of Beauty's light. 

As if it brought the memory of pain. 
Thou art a wayward being — well — come near, 
And pour thy tale of sorrow in mine ear. 



1 68 ABOUT MOSQUITOES. 



What sajs't thou — slanderer! roug-e makes thee sick? 

And China bloom, at best, is sorrj food? » 

And Rowland's Kaljdor, if laid on thick, 

Poisons the thirsty wretch who bores for blood? 
Go! 'twas a just reward that met thy crime — 
But shun the sacrilege another time. 

That bloom was made to look at, not to touch; 

To worship, not approach, that radiant white; 
And well might sudden vengeance light on such 

As dared, like thee, most impiously, to bite. 
Thou should'st have gazed at distance, and admired. 
Murmured thy adoration, and retired. 

Bryant, 




mmm'^mmmfm!^^ 



About B 



BOUT -pEETLES. 



ARTICULATA.— iNSECTi.. 

Ori>bk— Ooleoptera. Sheath-winged, 




'OTGHTLY armor of proof pro- 
tects the Beetle. First, there 
is the strong helmet, with shut 
visor, and crest of varied de- 
vice. Then comes the solid 
cuirass, which protects the 
body, and below that the full- 
orbed, or oval shield, which 
covers the abdomen, and the upper joints of the 
legs. He carries neither sword nor lance, mace 
nor battle axe, but from the joints of his visor 
project two ponderous jaws, which grip like a 
vice. He is horse and horseman in one. Hig 



172 ABOUT BEETLES. 

thick shield parts in the middle, and when the 
two leaves swing apart, they disclose a pair of 
light, gauzy wings, which, with a great deal of 
fussy buzzing, lift him from the ground and 
carry him away, when he, 

" Drowsy beetle, wheels his droning flight." 

The plates of his coat of mail fit each other 
very exactly. The helmet makes the neatest 
joint with the corselet, and. the corselet with 
the shield. The wearer can move every part 
with perfect freedom, and yet each joint is 
closed against prick of arrow or thrust of spear. 
Yet the Beetle is not the swift horseman of 
to-day, but resembles more the heavy man-at- 
arms of three hundred years ago. When he 
was pushed off his horse in sham or real fight, 
and lay sprawling on his back, boxed up in his 
heavy plate armor, he needed a stout esquire to 
set him on his pins again. Just so, if a bum- 
ming beetle be knocked on the floor; it takes 
him a long while to overcome his astonishment, 



THEIR ARMOR. 173 

and make ready again for a tilt at the lamp, or 
at your face. 

Our knight has little of the swift dash of the 
wasp, who pricks with his sharp lance, and 
then rings his shrill defiance. He has none of 
the stealthy adroitness of the spider, who lassos 
his victim, like a Mexican, and then stabs hira 
in the back, as coolly as an Italian bravo. 
Indeed, he does very little at offensive warfare. 
If you are in his way, he gives you a sharp 
pinch, or whacks you in the face, but that is all. 
His heavy mail serves mostly to ward off the 
ass-aults of others. 

The style and the ornaments of his armor 
are very various, and often are very beau- | 

tiful. Sometimes the whole suit is plain 
black, or dark brown. Sometimes it gleams 
with brilliant hues of green, crimson, pur- 
ple, and gold, or blazes with precious gems, 
set in polished metal. In any case, he keeps 
his armor scrupulously clean, no matter how 
filthy the work which he is busied about. g 

The order contains over one hundred thou- I 



I 



174 ABOUT BEETLES. 

sand kinds, divided into various families. "We 
must be content with noticing a few of the most 
remarkable. Some of them do great injury to 
vegetation, either while grubs, as the borers in 
trees, or the young of the cock-chaffer, which 
eat the roots of grass ; or while fully developed 
beetles, as the curculio, which kills the plums, 
the striped cucumber-bug, the rose-chaffer, and 
many others. Other kinds confer decided ben- 
efits. The Water Rovers, the Skin Beetles, 
Carrion Beetles, and Dung Beetles, are scaven- 
gers, disposing of the filth in which they and 
their young live. The Tiger Beetles, Lady- 
birds, and Diving Beetles, prey upon caterpil- 
lars, and plant lice. The Stag Beetles, Bark 
Beetles, and others, help destroy old trees 
M^hich are going to decay. The Blister Beetles, 
or Cautharides, are pounded up by the drug- 
gists, and the dust is spread upon plasters, to 
raise blisters when applied to the skin. 

The first on our list is the Sexton, or Burying 
Beetle. If the body of a dead bird, or mouse, 
or any piece of meat, be left upon a spot of soft 



THE BURYING-BEETLE. 1 75 

earth, it will often be found, on the next morn- 
ing, half sunk in the soil. Take up the bird, 
and you will find under it one or two beetles, 
sometimes entirely black, sometimes barred 
with orange. Daring the day the insects will 
usually be quiet, but at nightfall they will begin 
work again. The work of burying is done 
almost entirely by the male Beetle, the female 
either hiding in the dead body, or sitting qui- 
etly on it, and being buried with it. The male 
begins by turning a furrow all round the bird, 
about half an inch away. His head is held 
sloping outwards, and like a strong plow, turns 
the earth aside. When the first furrow is 
made, a second is turned within it, the dirt 
being thrown into the first. Then a third is 
made, and this is quite under the bird, so that 
the Beetle is out of sight. The work may be 
traced by the heaving of the earth, which now 
makes a wall, and as it grows highe\, the^bird 
sinks. After hard work for about tb '•ee hours, 
the Beetle comes forth, and crawL** apo*"^ the 
body, to see how he succeeds. Ho tij^-^i.^ vVP 



1 7^ ABOUT Beetles. 

an hour, goes down again, dives into the grave, 
and pulls the bird down by the feathers. He 
works two or three hours more, plowing and 
pulling ; then comes up, takes another survey, 
and drops down, as if suddenly fallen asleep. 
When he is rested, he pulls the bird about, this 
way and that, tramples it down, and settles it 
to his mind. Then he goes behind the rampart 
of earth, and plows it back into the grave, with 
great skill and strength. He bends his head 
down first, and then turns up his nose with a 
jerk which throws the earth forward. When 
the grave is filled, and carefully examined, no 
feather being left in sight, he digs a hole in the 
loose earth, and having already buried the bird 
and the female, next buries himself. The 
female lays her eggs, the pair take a full meal 
of the carcass, then dig their way out, and fly 
away. 

If the creature is no bigger than a mouse, a 
single day will be long enough to bury it in. 
One buried a mole, fort}^ times as large as itself, 
in two da} s. A French naturalist placed two 



THE DOR BEETLE. I?? 

pairs of these Beetles under a glass case, and 
furnished them with dead bodies. In fifty days 
they had buried four frogs, three small birds, 
two fishes, one mole, two grasshoppers, and 
three bits of flesh. All this work is done to 
secure a nest and food for the young, and to 
protect it from other creatures, as the fox, or 
the raven, which might devour flesh and young 
Beetles together. 

The work is done very much as men sink 
wells in sandy ground. They sometimes lay 
down on the earth a ring of plank, as large as 
the well is to be. Then they build a circular 
wall of brick and mortar upon the ring. The 
sand is taken out from under the plank, and 
the whole wall sinks slowly down. So the well 
is dug as deep as may be necessary, while the 
wall is built up at the top, as fast as it settles 
into the ground. 

Another burying Beetle is the Dor Beetle, 
called, in this country. Tumble-bug. This is 
akin to the sacred beetle of ancient Egypt, or 
the Scarabseus. Its image was engraved on 



I?^ ABOUT BEETLES. 

rings, which soldiers wore to show that they 
were warriors. On temples or columns it was 
a symbol of Divine wisdom, which regulates the 
universe, teaches mankind, and is self-existent. 
In its singular habit of rolling about pellets of 
dung the Egyptian astrologers thought it rep- 
resented the revolutions of the sun, moon, and 
stars. 

When this insect finds a patch of cow-dung, 
she sets herself at work. First she digs a deep 
hole, smooth and round. Then she cuts ofi* a por- 
tion of the patch, lays an ^g^ in it, and rolls it 
about into a rude ball. JSTow she rests her fore 
feet upon the ground, and with her hind feet 
rolls the ball hither and thither, until the outside 
has gathered in the dust and sand, a thin, hard 
crust or shell. Then, always pushing back- 
wards, she rolls it to the hole, tumbles it in, 
and covers it with earth. The eofor jg goon 
hatched, the grub feeds on the substance which 
surrounds it, changes to a chrysalis, and remains 
in the shell, which still serves to protect it, 
until it is ready to come forth, a perfect Beetle, 



THE GOLIATH. 179 

qualified to roll pills on its own account. The 
smooth surface of this beetle, which gleams like 
polished steel, retains no trace of its work. 
Not a spot or a stain defiles it, nor does any 
odor betray its occupation. 

Some of these rolled cocoons are very large. 
A specimen in the British Museum, made by 
the Goliath, is as large as a swan's Qgg. The 
walls are quite thin, and are strengthened by a 
belt about the middle. The insect which grew 
in it is still inside, and may be seen through an 
opening at one end. Its plates of mail are rich, 
velvety chocolate, edged with broad bands of 
white. This species, the largest now known, 
has a body about four inches long and two 
inches broad ; when walking, it covers a space 
of nearly six inches. 

An interesting family of Beetles includes the 
Dors, May-bugs, Cock-chafers, and Rose-bugs. 
They are very common and well known, both 
as Beetles and as grubs. The perfect insect 
does not live more than a week, and the species 
is not seen more than four or six weeks in a 



1 80 ABOUT BEETLES. 

season. The females burrow in the ground 
about six inches, to lay their eggs — some say, 
as many as two hundred. In about fourteen 
days the ^gg'^ are hatched, and produce white 
grubs, each having six legs near the head, and 
a pair of strong jaws. Their skins are white, 
and partly transparent. When thrown out by 
the plow or spade, they are found coiled like a 
ring, or a horse-shoe. A full grown grub is 
n.early as large as one's little finger — a plump, 
fat morsel, very eagerly swallowed by crows and 
chickens. 

They do much mischief, eating the tender 
roots of grass, grain, herbs, and trees. When 
very numerous, they have so cut off the roots 
of grass, that the turf could be rolled up in 
many places like a carpet. As winter comes, 
they descend below the reach of frost, and lie 
torpid until spring ; then they change their 
skins, and go back to the surface. At the end 
of the third summer — some say the fifth — 
they go down about two feet, and each one, by 
moving from side to side, forms a hollow oval 



THE MA r-B UG. 1 8 1 



space, about the size of a pigeon's ^gg. Here 
it casts its skin, and becomes a pupa, whose 
clear salmon-colored skin shows under it the 
head, eyes, jaws, wings, legs — all the parts of 
the perfect beetle. In February this skin 
bursts, and the insect is ready to dig its way 
out when the first warm week of May has 
clothed the trees with leaves. In digging out 
decayed stumps of trees, fine opportunities may 
be had for observing these grubs in every stage 
of their lives. 

The winged beetles do as much harm by eat- 
ing the leaves of trees, as the grubs did by 
devouring the roots. During the day they 
remain on the branches, hidden under the 
leaves. At nightfall they begin to buzz about, 
humming among the trees until midnight. 
They often come into houses, attracted, and 
blinded, by the light. They dart about with 
very uncertain aim, putting out candles, whack- 
ing unlucky people in the face, and banging 
agaiaist trees and walls so hard as to throw them- 
selves stunned upon the ground. Hence come 



l82 



ABOUT BEETLES. 



the sayings "blind as a beetle/' and "beetle- 
headed." When very plenty, the attempt has 
been made to check their ravages by shaking 
them from the trees upon cloths spread under- 
neath. They are then thrown into boiling 
water, and fed to fowls or hogs. In this way 
they have been gathered by pailfuls, and in a 
few days no more could be found. Many years 
ago these beetles were so plenty in ITorwich, 
England, that a farmer and his men claimed 
to have gathered eighty bushels of them ; and 
they and their grubs had done so much harm, 
that the city gave the farmer twenty-five pounds 
for relief. 

The Rose-chafer, like the May-bug, does 
much harm in gardens and nurseries. It is 
about one third of an inch long, covered with 
yellowish down. The slender, red legs end in 
long feet. They come forth about the second 
week in June, and remain about a month. The 
eggs are hatched in the ground, and the grubs 
feed upon roots until autumn, when they 
descend below the frost. In the spring they 



STA G-BEE TLES. 1 83 

come up again. In May they pass the first 
change, and in June come forth fledged Rose- 
bugs. They can be destroyed only by crush- 
ing, burning, or throwing into scalding water. 
They eat the leaves not only of rose bushes, but 
also of fruit trees. 

Certain Beetles called Stag Beetles, and 
Horn-bugs, from their jaws, which resemble 
the horns of oxen or deer, belong to the family 
Lucanidm, They fly by night, and often the 
lights attract them into houses, to the great 
alarm of the people within ; but they are quite 
harmless, and will not even pinch, unless pro- 
voked. Their grubs resemble those of the 
Scarabs, and live in the trunks and roots of 
trees. When full grown, they make cocoons 
of bits of wood and bark, glued together, and 
wait the changes which make Horn-bugs of 
them. 

The grubs of the Buprestidce are the borers 
so destructive to fruit and forest trees. They 
are long, narrow, and flat, with large, hard 
heads and jaws. They have no legs, but 



184 ABOUT BEETLES. 

move by twisting from side to side, and by 
pulling with their jaws. They may be 
destroyed by thrusting a wire after them, into 
the hole which they are making — if it can be 
found. The crushed grub will come out on the 
point of the wire, to prove the success of the 
experiment Possibly, however, woodpeckers 
would be more expert at this kind of thing than 
men. 

Another family that are great pests are the 
Carculios. These spoil the fruit, attacking 
plums, apricots, and cherries, and not sparing 
apples, pears, and peaches. As soon as the 
fruit is set in the spring, these little insects 
begin their work, and they keep at work, until 
July or August. The Beetle cuts with its snout 
a little curve in the skin of the plum, then 
turns round and lays an Qgg in the wound. A 
maggot hatches, which eats its way into the 
fruit, even to the stone; this causes the plum 
to become diseased, and to fall off before it is 
ripe. When the plum is partly grown, the 
curved scar may be easily found. All such, 



THE r A TTA CK PINES. 1 85 

with all that fall upon the ground, should be 
gathered and destroyed, to prevent the maggots 
from going into the ground to pass the changes, 
and coming out afterwards to keep up the 
evil. 

Others of this family attack the pines. "Wil- 
son says : " Would it be believed that the larvse 
of a fly no bigger than a grain of rice, should 
silently, and in one season, destroy some thou- 
sands of acres of pine trees, many of them two 
and three feet in diameter, and a hundred and 
fifty feet high I In some places the whole 
woods, as far as you can see around you, are 
dead, stripped of their bark, their wintry arms 
and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tum- 
bling in ruins before every blast." Besides 
boring into the trunks, these insects often 
destroy the top shoot of the tree, on which 
its straight and lofty growth depends. Mr. 
Wilson suggests that until farmers can devise 
some better plan of killing these pests, they 
had better thank and protect the woodpecker. 

Another rascal of this tribe is the wheat- 



l86 ABOUT BEETLES. 

weevil. Several insects are known by this 
name, but the one meant is a slender Beetle, 
about one eighth of an inch long, and of a 
pitchy-red color. It lays eggs upon the har- 
vested wheat, and the grubs burrow into the 
grain, each one taking possession of a single 
kernel. The worm eats the substance, but 
leaves the shell, so that the only evidence of 
harm is the lightness of the grain. They may 
be destroyed by drying the wheat in kilns. 

After the peas have blossomed, and while 
they are just beginning to swell in the tender 
pods, the Pea-beetles gather by night, or in 
cloudy weather, and lay their tiny eggs in 
minute holes which they pierce in the surface 
of the pods. The maggots, as soon as hatched, 
bury themselves in the peas, and the small 
holes are soon closed. Often every pea in a 
pod contains a grub. They remain in the peas 
after they ripen, aud come out in the spring, 
perfect bugs, ready to carry on the work. 
Those who plant " buggy " peas will find the 
bugs are quite as sure to come up, and bear 



THE YELL OW S TRIPE D B UG. 1 8 7 

fruit, as the peas. The crow-blackbird is fond 
of the bugs, and the Baltimore oriole, or hang- 
bird, splits open the pods to get the grubs in 
the green peas. Don't disturb him, for be sure 
if he wants the peas, you don't. 

Another nuisance in the garden is the yellow 
striped bug, which destroys the young cucum- 
ber and melon plants. It comes as soon as the 
young vines come, and it stays all summer. 
Great numbers visit the flowers of the squashes 
and pumpkins for the pollen. The eggs are 
laid, and the grubs grow, in the ground. Those 
bugs which have their heads pinched off will 
be sure to do no further harm. Various devi- 
ces have been employed against them, such as 
sifting soot, snuff, sulphur, ashes, or plaster of 
Paris, on the vines; sprinkling them with 
steeping of tobacco, red pepper, walnut leaves, 
or hops ; burning flres of pine knots or bits of 
tar barrels at night, but none are sure. The 
best preservative is a frame of board, covered 
with millinet, to place over each hill of vines. 
If the plants can be protected for a little time, 



i88 



ABOUT BEETLES. 



they will grow fast enough to escape further 
harm. 

But my readers will hegin to believe that all 
the Beetles are nuisances, and will be led to 
make war upon every insect which wears a 
hard shell. Let us find some for which some- 
thing may be said on the credit side of the 
account. 

While writing about ants, we mentioned 
those destructive little insects, which the ants 
use like herds of cattle, the plant-lice, or Aiphi- 
des. The ants only milk their cows, but the 
grubs of a Beetle eat them up. These grubs 
become the pretty insects which people com- 
monly call Lady-birds; naturalists call them 
Coccinellidce. They have the size and shape of 
half a pea. Some are black, spotted with red ; 
others, red with black, yellow with black, or 
yellow with white spots. The eggs are laid 
among the lice, and the grubs at once go to 
work catching and eating prey as large as them- 
selves, without ever seeming to be satisfied. 

This insect has always been a favorite. The 



LADY BIRDS, 1 89 

German children think it brings fair weather, 
and the English bojs and girls are afraid to 
hurt it, lest it should bring rain. The Norwe- 
gians call it Marspaert, and count the spots to 
see if there will be a good harvest. If there be 
fewer than seven spots, they say bread will be 
plenty and cheap. The children sing: 

Marspaert, fleeg in Himmel ! 
Bring mj'n Sack voll Kringeln ; mj een, dy een, 
Alle liitten Engeln een. 

Marspaert, fly to heaven ! 
Bring me a sackful of biscuits ; one for me, one for thee, 
For all little angels one. 

The Scotch children call this insect Lady 
Lanners, or Landers. They say: 

Lady, Lady Lanners, 
. Lady, Lady Lanners, 
Tak' up your clowk about your head, 
And flee away to Planners. 
Flee ower firth, and flee ower fell, 
Flee ower pule and rinnan well. 
Flee ower muir, and flee o'wer mead, 



19^ ABOUT BEE TLES, 

Flee ower livan, flee ower dead, 
Flee ower corn, and flee ower lea, 
Flee ower river, flee ower sea. 
Flee je east, or flee je west, 
Flee till him that lo'es me best. 

There are many other little rhymes in various 
languages, which show how children every 
where love this insect. Perhaps they do not 
know that it is useful as well as pretty. 

The family of ClcindelidcB are called Tiger 
Beetles, or Sparklers. They get the first na*me 
from the fierce way in which they seize and 
devour other insects, and the last from their 
brilliant colors. The Tiger Beetle is among 
insects what the kite is among , birds, or the 
shark among fishes. He runs with great speed; 
he is armed with jaws like sickles, crossing 
each other; his eyes project from each side of 
his head, that he may see every way; his wings 
help him to fly as swiftly as a wasp. His suit 
of mail, of burnished steel embossed with gold, 
is more beautiful than any thing ever wrought 
by mortal armorer. If placed under the miaro- 



THE WATER BEETLE. I9I 

scope in a strong light, his whole surface seems 
abhize with precious metals and dazzling gems. 
The larvae make their homes in the ground in 
t-unnels about a foot deep. Here one of them 
lies in ambush just at the top of the ground, 
the head hooked to the edge of the hole. 
When an insect passes, the jaws grasp it, and 
drag it to the bottom of the den, to be eaten. 

Another family of carnivorous Beetles lives 
in the water. Their breathing tubes open 
under the wing-cases. When thej dive, they 
carry down under the wings a supply of air, 
and as this becomes exhausted, they rise, lift 
the wings above the surface, and so take a fresh 
supply. The larva of the Water Beetle is as 
active and as fierce as that of the Tiger Beetle, 
and the full grown insect does not outgrow his 
youthful tastes. If several be put in a vessel 
together, they will surely eat each other. A 
gentleman placed a pair in his aquarium in 
order to observe their habits. He succeeded in 
observing, on the next morning, that the male 



igZ ABOUT BEETLES. 

had been killed and partly eaten by his disconso- 
late widow. 

The whirligigs, that shoot from side to side 
on the top of still water, belong to this family. 

One of the most noted Beetles is the Cucayo, 
or Fire-fly of Mexico and Brazil. It wears on 
each side of the chest two light patches, which 
by day are pale yellow, but by night glow with 
a very intense light. When it spreads its wings, 
its whole body seems filled with the most brilliant 
flame. It flies by night, and the forests, filled 
with these insects, crossing and recrossing in 
every direction, glowing and vanishing as if 
suddenly lighted and as suddenly extinguished, 
present a scene too beautiful to be described. 

The Indians catch these beetles by balancing 
hot coals in the air at the end of a stick, to 
attract them, which proves that the light which 
their bodies diffuse is to attract. Once in the 
bands of the women, the Cucuyos are shut up 
in little cages of very fine wire, and fed on frag- 
ments of sugar-cane. When the Mexican ladies 
wish to adorn themselves with these living dia- 



THE cucuros, 193 

monds, they place them in little bags of light 
tulle, which they arrange with taste on their 
skirts. There is another way of mounting the 
Cucuyos. They pass a pin, without hurting 
them, under the thorax, and stick this pin in 
their hair. The refinement of elegance consists 
in combining with the Cucuyos, humming-birds 
and real diamonds, which produce a dazzling 
head-dress. Sometimes, imprisoning these ani- 
mated flames in gauze, the graceful Mexican 
women twist them into ardent necklaces, or else 
roll them round their waists, like a fiery girdle. 
They go to the ball under a diadem of living 
topazes, of animated emeralds, and this diadem 
blazes or pales according as the insect is fresh 
or fatigued. When they return home, after the 
soiree, they make them take a bath, which 
refreshes them, and put them back again into 
the cage, which sheds during the whole night 
a soft light in the chamber. In the full glow 
of one of these" Fire-flies, it is easy to read 
a letter or a book. The little Flies which dart 



194 ABOUT BEETLES. 

through our meadows in moist summer even- 
ings, are akin, though far less brilliant. 

The last family we will mention, are the Can- 
tharides, or Blister-flies. They secrete a sub- 
stance which, when procured by itself, looks 
like fine snow-flakes; when it is left upon the 
skin it causes great irritation, and soon pro- 
duces blisters. The Spanish Fly is nearly an 
inch long; its color is a satin green, glossed 
with gold. It feeds upon the ash and lilac, and 
is found also on the poplar, the rose, and the 
honeysuckle. Large quantities are taken, killed 
by fumes of vinegar, and exported for druggists' 
use. Several kinds of Blister-flies live among 
us. The Potato-fly, which consumes the vines 
at midsummer, is of this family. Another 
often strips the leaves from the clematis. These 
flies may be caught by shaking them from the 
vines into water, which prevents their flying, 
and when dry they may be used by the apothe- 
caries. 




AMPHRISIUS BUTTEllFLY, C A T E li P I LL A R, 
AND CHRYSALIS. 



About Butterflies. 



Articulata — Insecta. 

Order — Zepidoptera. Scale-winged. 




GH ! See that horrid, ugly 
worm !" Who has not heard 
such an outcry ? Is there any 
good reason for the feeling which 
it indicates ? We believe that 
the repugnance which very many 
really feel towards creatures of 
this kind is not, as they think, 
natural, or inborn, but is the result of early 
training. When the young mother sees her 
toddling baby busily watching a caterpillar, 
she bids him, with earnest words, with looks 
and ac-oents of disgust, avoid the " horrid, nasty 



19^ ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

thing;" his growing curiosity is checked, and 
darling Willie Winkie comes to believe that a 
worm or a spider is the vilest thing he can 
know, as confidently as he believes he loves his 
mother or his sister. Whoever has overcome 
the feeling, thus artificially acquired, long 
enough to begin the study of the forms, the 
nature, and the wonderful transformations of 
caterpillars of every kind, h^s learned that in 
this, as in all other departments of nature, the 
hifinite resources of the creative power of God 
are wonderfully displayed. 

Considering the entire round of the creatirre'a 
life, the whole world of birds, insects, and flow- 
ers presents nothing more interesting or lovely. 
If nature's course is not disturbed, the worm 
will fly on wings of beautiful form, exquisite 
coloring, and most delicate plumage; the moth 
or the butterfly assuredly was, at some day not 
long since, a crawling worm. But we go yet 
farther, and confidently assert, that at no stage 
of its varied life does the insect show to the 
student so much that has interest or value, or 



CATTERPILLARS DO HARM. 1 99 

to the general observer much more of absolute 
beauty of color, symmetry, and adaptation, than 
when it is so often abhorred as a " horrid, ugly 
worm." 

"We do not deny that caterpillars of all kinds 
do much mischief. They eat, eat voraciously, 
and have the instinct to select the choicest 
parts of that on which they thrive. Most sub- 
sist on vegetable food, and chiefly on leaves; 
yet some devour the solid wood, some live in 
the pith, and some eat only grains and seeds. 
Some kinds attack woolens and furs ; even 
leather, meat, wax, flour, and lard, nourish par- 
ticular kinds of caterpillars. There is, then, no 
reason why they may not be destroyed, so that 
their numbers may be kept within reasonable 
limits. But we should not assert that the poor 
creatures are ugly, and then kill them because 
we have given them a bad name. 

Let us see what we can learn by studying the 
lives of a few ; we could wish that every reader, 
young or old, could have the specimens under 



200 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

his own eyes, sure as we are that he would find 
more of interest in them than we describe. 

In the month of June, when the feathery car- 
rot leaves are growing well, we may find feed- 
ing on them a small worm, nearly black, which 
has perhaps grown to half an inch before we 
discover him ; he may be no more than a tenth 
of an inch long. If none are seen on the car- 
rots, we may search the parsnips, the leaves of 
the celery, parsley, or carraway, for the worm 
thrives on either. He is about as large as an 
oat-straw, and a little thickest just behind his 
head. He wears a clean, tight-fitting coat of 
black velvet, with a broad white band across 
the middle of his back, and another over his 
tail ; the velvet seems to be laid over him in 
folds, and to be studded with small black 
points. If touched, he throws his head back 
quickly, as if annoyed at the impertinence. 
Tickle him with a straw, and he pushes an 
orange-yellow horn out from the top of his 
head, toward the side which was touched; 
tickle the other side, another appears. Both 



CHANGING THE SKIN. 20I 

issue from the same opening, and the two 
branch like the two parts of a Y. They are 
scent organs. Immediately a smell is diffused, 
at first not unfragrant — like some kind of over 
ripe fruit — but soon sickening; by this odor 
he probably protects himself from the ichneu- 
mon-flies, which would else trouble him ; and 
by it, also, you may know that your specimen 
is that which we describe. 

You may gather a few leaves of the carrot, 
with the worm, and put them in any safe, airy 
place where you can watch him day by day ; 
a supply of fresh food will keep him from 
going away for the present; or you may 
observe him on the plant where you found 
him. 

In a few days he will quite likely cease to 
eat. If it were a canary, or a squirrel, which 
does not dispose of his rations, you might guess 
that your pet is sick, and so be anxious about 
him, but you need take little thought for the 
worm. He becomes restless. He twists quickly 
from side to side. Presently his skin bursts 



202 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

just above or behind his head, and he actually 
begins to creep out of it. There, it is done. 
Your worm is yondei*, in a new velvet jacket, 
several sizes larger, quite differently and more 
handsomely marked. It is arranged in cross- 
w^ay folds, as before. On each fold the sober 
black is enlivened by several bright orange 
spots ; on the middle of the back, where the 
white fold lay, is a small white spot, surrounded 
by six others, while three more are arranged a 
little lower on either side. The old garment, 
a shriveled, useless thing, lies there, where he 
crept out of it, after having fastened its hinder 
hooks to the leaf on which he rested. 

!N'ow he takes his food with renewed relish. 
He moves more freely, and seems much more 
at ease in his new and enlarged garment. For 
several weeks this process goes on. He eats, 
grows, outgrows his old clothes, and creeps out 
of them in a new and larger suit, — mamma, 
did you never wish Bobby could do so too, 
instead of wearing his trousers out at the knees, 
and kicking his toes through the copper ? — 



STRUCTURE. 203 

until after four or five weeks, and about as 
many changes, he is a full grown worm, or cat- 
erpillar. When at rest, he is rather more than 
an inch and a half long ; when creeping about, 
he stretches more than two inches. The velvet 
coat is quite gone. In its place he wears a gar- 
ment softer and smoother than the finest satin, 
or perhaps more like the delicate kid of which 
gloves are made, save that the worm's skin is 
far more delicate* The color is apple-green, 
paler on the sides, and whitish beneath ; the 
bands are black, dotted with j^ellow spots, so 
placed as to form regular lines along his body. 
In structure, our caterpillar is an example of 
all others. His body is made of twelve ringa 
of tolerably firm substance, connected by softer 
bands, and covered with skin. Thus he has 
the most perfect freedom of motion. He can 
stretch or contract himself, can turn or twist in 
any direction, can roll into a ring, or straighten 
out stifif, like a twig of the plant on which he 
feeds, or conform to any unevenness of surface 
over which he may creep. His head is covered 



204 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

with a flattened, shelly dish, provided on each 
side with six minute shining grains, which 
naturalists say are eyes. They do not say that 
caterpillars can see; Dr. Morris thinks "it is 
very doubtful whether they have the faculty of 
vision." One who watches a worm feeding, 
moving about, reaching out this way and that, 
quite ignorant of any danger that threatens, 
passing at the shortest distance the very thing 
which it seems to seek, never recognizing any 
thing except what it touches, and shrinking 
only when it is touched, can scarcely fail to 
conclude that, however many eyes the worm 
may have, it is, in fact, quite blind. 

The mouth is armed with a pair of strong 
jaws, which open and shut, not vertically, like 
those of a dog, or a man, but sidewise. In 
the middle of the broad under lip is a small 
elastic tube, with a minute opening, whence 
comes the silk which it will some day find use- 
ful. In tropical countries the head is often 
queerly ornamented with spikes, prickles, 



CATERPILLARS' LEGS. 20^ 

horns, and other things; those v/hich we may 
see rarely have any thing of the kind. 

Each of the first three rings of the body has 
a pair of jointed, tapering legs, covered with 
scaly or horny mail, and ending with hooks. 
These are the true legs. The worm has, 
besides, four to ten — usually eight — false, or 
pro-legs. These are thick, fleshy, without 
joints, but can stretch or contract like the 
body, are furnished at the end with a fringe 
of small hooks, and can take very different 
forms, as the animal wishes to cling by them 
to various surfaces. Caterpillars which have 
the full number of legs, that is, sixteen, have 
still four rings unprovided, the fourth and fifth, 
and the tenth and eleventh. The twelfth, or 
anal ring, has always a pair; the ninth has usu- 
ally a pair; the other pro-legs vary with the 
species. 

The motions of a large caterpillar which 
has the full complement of legs are delib- 
erate and regular. First he stretches out the 
elastic body, and puts down the six horny 



206 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

legs together ; then the pair of anal legs take 
themselves up, and replace themselves close 
behind the pair of the ninth ring, shutting 
down upon the twig or leaf, as if made of India 
rubber; then the other pairs of pro-legs lift and 
move forward, the hindermost rising and fall- 
ing first, and the others following in their 
order; mean while, motion seems to begin at 
the tail, and flow gradually and equably through 
the entire body, ending by pushing the head 
on for another stretch. The motion of such as 
have but one or two pairs of pro-legs is similar 
in fact, though different in appearance. The 
bind legs are drawn forward, and set down just 
behind the true legs, the body being thrown up 
into a loop; this loop straightened out, carries 
on the fore legs again. These caterpillars are 
called loopers, geometers, or measurers, since 
they seem to measure off the distance of therr 
journeys. Gail Hamilton's gardener says they 
do so : measuring with his thumb and finger on 
his coat sleeve. 

The looper caterpillars can not shorten or 



THEIR VORACITT. 207 

lengthen their bodies like others, but only 
bend them. Some are round and stiff, of the 
same color as the bark on which they live. 
They grasp the stem or twig with their four 
pro-legs, while the body stands out stiif and 
motionless for hours together, and the ob- 
server mistakes them for twigs, or leaf-stems. 
Each kind of caterpillar feeds by choice only 
on certain kinds of food, and most will refuse 
any other variety. They usually prefer leaves; 
after that, flowers; a few eat the pith of the 
stalk, and occasional species, the pulp of 
fruits. Most feed by night, and remain quiet 
by day, as if torpid ; some are so voracious as 
to eat constantly. A silkworm devours its own 
weight of mulberry leaves, daily. Keaumur 
gave to a kind which eats cabbage, bits of cab- 
bage leaf which weighed twice as much as their 
bodies. The pieces were consumed in less than 
twenty-four hours, while the worms increased 
their weight one tenth. What if a man weigh- 
ing 150 pounds, should eat 300 pounds of food 
in a day, and gain 15 pounds of flesh ! 



2o8 



ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 



"When a caterpillar wishes food, it creeps out 
to the edge of a leaf, and twists its body into 
such a position that this edge passes between 
its legs, which hook on upon each side. It 
bites a mouthful from the edge, then another, 
and another, moving its head in the arc of a 
circle, and cutting in three or four bites, as a 
reaper would cut handfuls of grain with his 
sickle ; the head moves back to the edge of the 
leaf, and begins another sweep ; the fore legs 
move slowly on from time to time, until the 
caterpillar has stretched its body to its full 
length. Then the body draws itself back again, 
the pro-legs keeping their places, and the head 
cuts in again for a new swath. The pulp of 
the leaf is eaten down to the ribs, and often 
ribs and all disappear between the voracious 
jaws. 

But we must return to our caterpillar of the 
carrot-leaves. When he has finished eating, he 
becomes uneasy. He no longer rests quietly on 
his leaf, or he moves only to find fresh pastur- 



SPINNING. 209 

age ; he begins to wander about, and if we do 
not shut him up, we shall lose him altogether. 
Presently we find him quiet again in some 
secluded corner at the top of the case; if he 
could, he would have found a retreat in a knot- 
hole, a crevice between boards, or an obscure 
nook under the fence rail. He now presses the 
elastic tube of his under lip to the wood; the 
silk material adheres to it; he draws his head 
away, and stretches a fibre of silk to another 
point, where he tastens it by pressing the fresh 
material against the surface. He crosses and 
recrosses the threads until he has covered a 
little space with a hillock of silk, to which 
he fastens himself firmly by the hooks of his 
hinder feet. ISTow clinging by his pro-legs, he 
bends his head back to about the fifth ring, and 
fastens a thread to the wood beside him. This 
thread he carries over his back, and fastens on 
the opposite side ; he lays beside it a second, 
and a third, and in a little time has spun a 
stout band or loop of silk, in which he may rest 
securely. 



2 1 ABOUT B UTTERFLIBS. 

Some caterpillars, like the dark-colored 
worms, covered with spines, which infest the 
hop vines, do not spin the band for the back, 
but content themselves with the little mass of 
silk into which the hinder hooks are fastened. 
These simply hang themselves up, and let their 
bodies fall into a vertical position. The next 
business is to throw ofl', for the last time, its 
skin. To do this, it constantly bends and 
straightens its body, until the dried skin splits 
along the back, and part of the body beneath 
appears. Next, it draws the fore part of the 
body out of its covering. Then it lengthens 
and shortens itself by turns, each time splitting 
the skin still further, and pushing it, like a 
stocking, nearer to its tail, where it is soon 
a mere crumpled packet. N"ow comes the 
most difficult part of the whole. Out from 
its caterpillar skin the creature has come 
in a smooth, horny armor, laid in rings 
about its body, while its head, back, and 
breast, are swathed, like a mummy, in folds 
which firmly confine every limb. It can only 



CHANGING TO CHRYSALIDES. 211 

wriggle, jerking itself from side to side. Its 
tail is yet in the folds of the caterpillar skin, 
which is hooked to the silk above. It must 
draw itself out of this remnant, throw away 
the cast off garment, and hook itself by its 
tail to the same place. We see now the 
utility of the silken band of our worm of the 
carrot leaves, but the hop worm has no such 
assistance. It has neither arms or legs — how 
can it do so much without losing its own hold, 
and falling to the ground? 

The supple, contracting rings which cover its 
own body are the limbs which it uses. It 
seizes a portion of the skin between two of 
these rings, and so holding on, it curves the 
tail until it draws it entirely out of the sheath 
which covered it. But its body is shorter than 
before this change, and it must climb to reach 
the tuft of silk to which it should hang. It 
stretches its body as far as it can, and seizes the 
skin higher up, between two other rings, at the 
same time letting go below; this process it 
repeats with different rings in succession, until 



212 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

finally it reaches the tuft of silk, and fastens to 
it the hooks in its tail. 

It now gives itself a jerk, which sets it to 
spinning rapidly; it rubs against the skin, and 
loosens its hold on the silk. If one whirl is not 
enough, it whirls again, in the opposite direc- 
tion, and this time will almost surely succeed. 
Reaumur saw one which, after several efforts to 
dislodge the old skin, was forced to leave it 
where it was so firmly fastened. 

In about thirty hours after our caterpillar has 
made himself fast, he has effected this change, 
and now hangs by his tail, or in his hammock, 
a pupa, or chrysalis. Here he will remiain in 
unconscious security, during all the quiet days 
of autumn, and through the bitter blasts and 
piercing frosts of winter, until the v^^arm breezes 
of another June awaken his dormant powers to 
a new life. 

Other caterpillars make for themselves cases, 
or cocoons, spinning them of silk, and often 
working in other materials. They are for the 
most part oval, or egg-shaped, sometimes boat- 



HOW THEl USE THEIR HAIR. 213 

shaped, and are usually white, yellow, or brown 
in color. In some, the threads cling very 
slightly; in others, they are closely gummed 
together; some are single, others double; some 
so closely woven as to quite hide the pupa with- 
in, others so thin that it may easily be seen; 
some bind together leaves, within which they 
hide ; some work into the shell bits of earth ; 
while some weave into the fabric the hairs 
with which their own bodies had been cov- 
ered. 

One variety pulls out its hairs with its teeth, 
la-ys them against the web already spun, and 
then fastens them by spinning more silk over, 
or, rather, under them — for the outside of the 
cocoon is spun first, and thickened from within. 
Another does not pull out its hairs; it cuts 
them ofi^. Another works its hairs through the 
meshes of the silken net, and then wriggles 
about until it rubs them off. Another pulls 
them out in the first place, then sets them up 
like the stakes of a palisade, and spins a light 



214 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

web within, curving them inward so as to form 
a sort of cradle. 

Many caterpillars go into the ground to 
become chrysalides; there they make round or 
oblong cocoons. These are always smooth and 
shining within, and are often fitted with a lin- 
ing of silk. Eeaumur took a cocoon out of the 
ground, broke it open, and placed it in a glass 
case containing nothing but sand. In four 
hours the injury was repaired. 

The caterpillar began by coming almost 
entirely out. It moved its head forwards until 
it could seize a bit of earth, which it drew into 
the cocoon ; then it came out for another, and 
so wrought for an hour, gathering material. 
Then it began to rebuild the broken place. 
First it spun a band of loose web over a part 
of the opening; then it placed a few of its 
grains of earth in the meshes which it had 
made ; it spun more silk, and put more grains 
in place, binding them together with silken 
cords. Presently the whole was closed except 
one small opening, which it filled with crossed 



THE BUTTERFL T APPEARS. 215 

threads, and then finally stopped by pushing 
among the threads the bit of sand which it 
had saved for the purpose, and which made all 
tight. 

A caterpillar found on the oak trees cuts off 
thin strips of bark, which it builds into two 
compact blades ; these it so arranges as to form 
a hollow cone, or boat-shaped shell, in which 
it becomes a pupa. It is at once architect, cab- 
inet-maker, and weaver. 

In due time — sometimes in a few days, 
sometimes not until another summer, and in 
one instance, after as many as seven years — 
the time comes for the last, and most glo- 
rious transformation. The poetical Greeks 
found in this change a type of the liberation 
of the soul from its mortal tenement, and its 
entrance into a higher and happier life ; hence 
they called the Butterfly, Psyche, the soul. 
This idea is most natural. The worm seems 
to spin its own shroud, to make its own coffin, 
often to enter its own grave. Yet within this 
shroud, this coffin, this grave, it lives, a dor- 



2l6 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES, 

mant, waiting life, until tlie day comes for its 
resurrection. Then it bursts its cerements, and 
emerges in a new and beautiful garb, into a 
brighter existence. But the new life, unlike 
that of the soul, is brief and mortal; a few 
short days complete its round, and it perishes 
forever. 

The pupa-case is dry, brittle, and easily 
broken. The least movement of the fly within 
opens the dry skin over the middle of the 
upper part of the thorax; the split extends 
over the forehead ; the pieces separate, and the 
insect finds an opening through which it may 
escape. But the escape requires time, for the 
head, the antennae, the wings, the legs, some- 
times even the tongue, are each in a separate 
case, and must be liberated one by one. All 
the parts are soft and moist. The wings, espe- 
cially, are a pair of crumpled packages, fast- 
ened to either side of the thorax. Gradually 
they unfold, they expand; the insect clings to 
a twig, and suffers them to hang in such a posi- 
tion that they may expand the more freely ; in 



GLOWING COLORS. 217 

time they become dry and firm. If the pupa 
is iu a cocoon, there is yet more to be done, 
for it is still within the silken envelope. In 
some, as in the Cecropia moth, the end of the 
cocoon opposite the head is only partially closed, 
and the moth more easily creeps out. Others 
cut their way through the silk, for which, Reau- 
mur says, they use their compound eyes as files. 
Others exude a liquid which softens the silk, 
and assists their escape. 

The perfect insect has four wings, covered 
with minute scales of varied forms; these, 
under the microscope, glow with the most beau- 
tiful metallic tints. " Suppose a painter could 
present on his canvas, in all their splendor, 
gold, silver, the ruby, the sapphire, the emer- 
ald, all the precious stones of the East, he 
would use no color, or shade of color, which 
might not be found on some scales of some 
Lepidopiera, where nature has concealed them 
from our gaze." 

The thorax, or chest, is strongly made, in 
order that it may give support to the wings, 



2 1 8 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES, 

and to the six legs. Many have the legs of 
equal length, and use all in walking ; in others, 
the two fore legs are very short, and are kept 
folded back against the chest. The body is 
long, oval, composed of five rings, joined by 
membrane. The head is rounded, flattened in 
front, and furnished with hairs. The globular 
eyes consist of a great number of facets, on 
which, in different species, glitter all the hues 
of the rainbow. In the compound eye of the 
Papilio, more than 17,000 facets have been 
counted. The antennae are placed near the 
upper border of each eye. Reaumur has fig- 
ured six different shapes, and upon them the 
classification into families partly depends. 
What is their use? Certainly not for sight, 
taste, or smell. They are of little use as 
feelers, and there seems to be nothing else for 
them to do, which we can understand, except to 
serve as ears. 

The jaws of the caterpillar have disappeared. 
Instead, the Butterfly has a long, flexible trunk, 
which it coils up into a small spiral, and carries 



LAYING EGGS. 2I9 

in a cleft just between the «yes. In some spe- 
cies of Hawk-moths, the tongue is longer than 
the whole body. It consists of three hollow- 
tubes, a small one placed between two that are 
larger. Through it the insect draws honey 
and the juice of flowers. But how can it eat 
even the most solid sugar? On examination it 
appears that it sends down through one or iv^o 
of the tubes of its trunk a fluid which dissolves 
the honey, or sugar, which is then carried back 
through the other tube, ^^ 

After the Butterfly has found its mate, it lays 
its eggs, some hundreds or thousands in num- 
ber, upon the plant which is the proper food 
for its young. They vary much in shape and 
color. Usually they adhere hj a gummy sub- 
stance; sometimes they are covered with the 
down fix)m the abdomen of the mother, to pro- 
tect them from cold, or injury. Some species 
place them in clusters; others scatter them, 
leaving only a few upon any single plant. In 
a few warm days they are hatched, producing 



220 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

minute caterpillars, and the round of nature's 
course is completed. 

Of the Lqpidoptera some fly by day, others in 
the twilight, others still in the darkness of 
night. Hence authors have classed them as 
diurnal, crepuscular, and nocturnal. But this 
division is not found to be entirely useful, since 
some that fly by night fly also during the bright- 
est and hottest sunshine, while even the night 
flyers do not fly all night. There are three 
principal sections. 

First, there are the Butterflies. These fly by 
day, have club shaped antennae, and when at 
rest, the fore wings in some, and all the wings 
in most, stand perpendicularly, turned back to 
back. 

Second, the Hawk-moths. These fly, some 
by day, but most in the morning and evening 
twilight; they have the antennae thickened in 
the middle, the wings narrow in proportion 
to their length, and confined together by a 
bunch of stiff bristles on the shoulder of the 
hind wing, which is held by a hook beneath 



PAPILIO ASTERIAS. 221 

the fore wing; the wings, when at rest, are 
more or less inclined like a roof, the fore wings 
covering the under ones. 

Third, the Moths. These fly mostly by night. 
The antennae taper from the base to the end, 
and are naked, like a bristle, or feathered on 
each side; the wings are held together by 
hooks and bristles, the first pair, when at rest, 
covering the under pair, and more or less 
sloped. - - ^^ 

Our space will not allow us to describe any 
of the many varieties of Butterflies and Moths 
which fly among us. The worm whose changes 
we traced from the carrot-tops, produces a 
large, fine Butterfly, called Papilio Asterias, 
which expands from three and a half to four 
inches. Its color is black; it has a broad band 
of sulphur-yellow spots across the wings, and 
a row of fainter yellow spots along the edge. 
The hind wings are tailed, and have seven blue 
spots between the two rows of yellow, and an 
eye-spot of orange, with a black centre. 



222 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES, 



Ho"W TO Catch and Preserve Butterflies. 

Any active, careful lad can secure a beautiful 
collection of Butterflies and Moths in a single 
season. For this he needs: a net; an ounce 
of chloroform, or sulphuric ether ; pins ; a set- 
ting-box ; suitable boxes for keeping and dis- 
playing specimens. 

Mosquito-netting is good enough for the net; 
make a bag about two feet long, and wide 
enough to be sewed to a light wooden hoop^ 
twelve or fourteen inches in diameter, and fast- 
ened firmly to a handle about three feet long. 
Or, take three or four springs from a discarded 
hoop-skirt ; leave the cotton covering on ; slip 
them through a hem made at the mouth of the 
net ; have them project three or four inches 
beyond the hem at each side; break oif the 
extra length, and then bend the projecting por- 
tions to a right angle ; lay these pieces flatly 
against the handle and bind fast with smooth 



THE SETTING-BOX. 223 

twine. The net thus made is very light, flexi- 
ble, and convenient. 

For a setting-box, any roomy box, of wood 
or pasteboard, two or three inches deep, will 
do. The bottom may be covered with thin 
sheet cork, pasted or glued down ; or, instead, 
strips of corn-stalks serve to hold the points 
of the pins very well. Some strips should 
have a groove between them one-fourth of an 
inch deep by three-eighths of an inch wide, to 
receive the bodies of the larger specimens. 

Where nothing better can be had, the bot- 
tom of the box may be arranged thus : get 
strips of inch board, about an inch wide, and 
as long as the box ; if the edges are sawed 
smoothly, do not plane them, but smooth the 
upper surface, and plane off each upper corner; 
place the sawed edges of two strips together 
and nail them ; then nail on a third, and so on, 
until a board is built wide enough to cover the 
box. The corners which were planed off now 
leave triangular grooves, while the sawed edges, 
though quite close, still allow the pins to pass 



224 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

between them. It is better to nail the strips 
together than to fasten them with cleats, be- 
cause the joints hold the pins better. By a 
little care the grooves may be made of different 
depths, to receive specimens of different sizes. 

Common brass pins may be used ; needles 
of various sizes are better ; best of all, the Ger- 
man pins made for the purpose, and sold by 
dealers in philosophical instruments. 

The permanent cases are best of wood, 
tightly made, and glazed on one or both sides. 
When only one side is glazed, the bottoms may 
be fitted like that of the setting box, and should 
be lined with white paper. Bits of camphor 
should be fastened in them to drive away 
insects, or some line day only a few wings, 
legs, and the dust of bodies will remain of the 
most valued specimens. 

But little can be gained by striking at But- 
terflies on the wing. Find one which is rest- 
ing on a flower, or on the ground ; approach 
quietly, bring the net up carefully until quite 
sure of him, then turn it skillfully, and he is 



PLACING THE WINGS. 225 

caught ; hold up the bag, while the hoop is flat 
on the ground, the insect usually rises into it, 
and the folds falling over prevent the spoiling 
of the wings. 

K"ow touch the head with a drop of ether, to 
stupefy hira, take him out gently, put a pin 
through the thorax between the roots of the 
wings, and place hira in the setting-box. As 
Izaak Walton says of using a frog for bait, 
"Use him as though you loved him." Arrange 
the feet as naturally as possible ; then with a 
needle push the fore wings forward until their 
hinder edges lie nearly in a straight line — 
beginners do not usually bring them forward 
enough. Then lay over the wings on each side 
a strip of paper, or of card, and fasten it down 
at each end with a pin, which must not pass 
through the wings. Take care that the two 
sides are placed alike. Some specimens of 
each kind should be set upon their backs, to 
display the under surfaces. Leave them in the 
setting box until thoroughly dry, allowing two 
or thi-ee weeks for the larger kinds; other- 



226 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

wise the wings will get awry, or droop, and 
the whole have an awkward appearance. 

Ether, and chloroform, often fail to kill; 
some of the larger moths take large and 
repeated doses, and still live. For such, a 
little cyanide of potassium may be had, dis- 
solved in water. A drop taken on a needle 
and pricked into the thorax under the wings, 
is merciful to the poor captive. Great care 
must be taken with this substance, for it is very 
poisonous when taken into the mouth. 

Hawk-moths, and many others, fly very 
swiftly, and require great dexterity in their 
captor ; take them when busy with a flower. 
Many moths may be attracted through an open 
window with a light. During the day they 
may often be found resting, head down, on 
fences, bark of trees, and elsewhere. Cover 
your specimen with a glass, slip a paper under, 
and take him away ; a few drops of ether on 
the paper fills the glass with vapor, which suflb- 
cates the insect. Some of each kind of moth 



THE WORM-CASB, 22*J 

should be set up, with wings in the natural 
position, as when at rest. 

Set up a number of specimens of each 
kind, in order to secure a choice; four are 
always wanted to show the upper and under 
surfaces of both male and female. Reject at 
once all that are broken-winged, or other- 
wise injured, unless the species is rare, and 
then as soon as a better one is found. The 
collector secures his finest specimens by sav- 
ing the cocoons, and taking the flies as soon 
as hatched, before they have had time to injure 
themselves. The cocoons should be kept 
through the winter in a cool place, in a roomy 
box; when the time comes for hatching, twigs 
must be provided, on which the butterflies may 
rest while the wings are expanding, else they 
may be hopelessly crippled. 

Early in summer, get a candle box, and raise 
the lid about twelve inches, on strips of board 
nailed into the four corners ; cover three sides 
of the open case with wire gauze, and fit a door 
to the fourth side. Fill the box with fresh gar- 



228 ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 

den mould, and set it away iu a shady place. 
If a new caterpillar is found, put him in the 
case with plenty of fresh food. The inhabitants 
will not quarrel, and will usually thrive. When 
grown, some will descend into the earth; some 
will spin cocoons, and some will hang them- 
selves up in the corners. Keep through winter 
in a cool place, away from mice, and watch the 
coming out of the insects in the spring. 

A little patience and contrivance will do all 
we have described, and more, while much plea- 
sure and instruction will be gained. Even this, 
profitable though it may be, should not be 
allowed to interfere with the performance of 
regular duty, whether work or study. 



Note. — The general reader who desires further infor- 
mation concerning the species and habits of insects, will 
find " Harris' Insects Injurious to Vegetation," and the 
*' Guide to the Study of Entomology," by A. S. Packard, 
Jr., now issuing in numbers in Salem, Mass., best suited 
to his purpose. 



